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FORT 
SCOTT, 






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C0WPLIMPST3 OF 



Citizens National Baiil, 

FORT SCOTT, KANSAS. 



Cbristmas, 
1899. 



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Book -Vt ^59 ; 



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C. W. GOODLANDER, President. 



MmOII^S AND RECOLLECTIONS 



Of 



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aw. GOODLANDER 



Of me 



EARLY DAYS OE EORT SCOTT, 



rrom April 29, 1655, to Januar/ i, 1570, Covering 

the time prior to the advent of the Railroad 

and during the davs of the ox-team 

and stage transportation. 



FORT SCOTT, KANSAS 

MONITOR BOOK & Printing Co 
1899 



R87 



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jGS2 



Dedicated to the Patrons of the Citizens National 
i^ank, of rort Scott, Kansas. 






« 






MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS 
L\RLY DAYS OF FORT SCO' 



I came from Pennsylvania to St. Louis, and then 
took a boat to Kansas City via Missouri Kiver. Arriv- 
ing at Kansas City on the evening of the 29th day of 
April, 1858, and taking my tool chest from the boat I 
put it up at the commission house of Crovvell Bros., and 
then went to the Gillis Hotel situated on the levee, (the 
principal hotel in Kansas City at that time.) I remained 
there all night, and the next morning looked up the 
stage office, w-hich was then located in the basement of 
what I now remember as the Watkins Bank building, 
at Second and Main streets, Kansas City. I learned that 
the stage line had only been established some two 
weeks, and was getting very few passengers. I engaged 
passage, for which I paid $15.00, and found that I was 
the only passenger for Fort Scott. But I had one com- 
panion, a Mr. Squires, who was taking out express for 
the first time, — in fact, it was he who established the 
express line. The stage left the office about eight 
o'clock in the morning, and the route was along Main 
street to about Thirteenth street, where they crossed 
lots to Grand avenue. Kansas City, then, I judge, was a 



4 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

town of some three thousand inhabitants, the principal 
business being on the levee and on Main street, where 
the City Hall is now located. Out on Grand avenue at 
about Thirteenth street, on the west side, I remember 
of seeing, at that time, the foundations for some eight 
business houses, and I think part of those foundations 
are still standing there just as they were then, as I 
remember seeing a relic of them only a few years ago. 
The East and West bottoms were covered with heavy 
timber, as were the hills on either side. Westport at 
that time showed more life than Kansas City. From 
Kansas City we went to Westport, and from Westport 
to Shawnee Mission, now Merriam. 

A few miles beyond Shawnee Mission we struck the 
prairie and thereafter saw few settlements. At noon we 
stopped at a place called Squireville for dinner, which 
place consisted of one store, one house, blacksmith 
shop and stage stable. The dinner consisted of salt 
pork, beans, dried apples and coffee. Squireville, I 
think, was near where the town of Olathe is now sit- 
uated. After leaving Squireville the settlements became 
more scattering. We reached Osawatomie in the even- 
ing and put up there for the night. We got an early 
start next morning and reached Moneka for dinner, a 
point some few miles north of the present Mound City. 
The dinner at Moneka was an improvement on that of 
Squireville, as they had some vegetables. By-the-way, 
the people who settled this town were vegetarians, and 
the women wore bloomer costumes. This town was 
4 bout the same size as Squireville. 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 5 

The stage rolled away from Moneka at early noon. 
The driver said he would get to Fort Scott at six o'clock. 
We crossed the Osage at a place called Rayville, and 
crossed the Marmaton at the old Military Ford at the 
mouth of Mill Creek. We came up into Fort Scott from 
the river bottom, about where National avenue now is, 
and from there on over to Fort Plaza, stopping at what 
was then known as the Free State Hotel, which was the 
building that 'Squire Margrave now occupies as a resi- 
dence. As the stage rolled up all the occupants of the 
hotel were on the sidewalk to receive the new arrivals 
on the stage. There were two parties in the small crowd 
whom I knew before I came to Fort Scott, — they were 
George A. Crawford and William Gallaher. They soon 
made me acquainted and at home with the balance of 
the boys. The persons who were in the crowd to wel- 
come new-comers were, I remember, George A. Craw- 
ford, William Gallaher, Ben. McDonald, Ed. Smith, 
Bill Bently, Charlie Bull, Burns Gordon, Charlie Dimon> 
Jim Jones, Tom Roberts, Ed. Bowen and Joe Ray. After 
congratulations were over Ray called me aside and 
says : "You appear to be a nice kind of a fellow, come 
along, and I will set up the drinks." I walked along 
with him, going down the sidewalk to the present row 
of buildings facing the Plaza, and then across to the 
house east of the present calaboose where a saloon was 
kept by a man named Head. On the way to the saloon 
Joe Ray felt around in his pockets and says : "By-the- 
way, I have no'money, will you loan me a quarter?" I 
reached in my pocket, and brought out an old worn 



6 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

quarter, which in those days was only worth 223^ cents, 
and by-the-way, it was the only money I had left after 
paying my fare and expenses from Kansas City to Fort 
Scott, and handed it to him, not letting him know but 
that I had plenty of money. In after years when speak- 
ing to Joe about not paying me back the 25 cents, he 
would say "I passed the 22>^ cents on the saloon keeper 
for a quarter and he wanted to have me arrested," but 
he never did pay it back to me. Joe proved to be the 
wag of the town. Prom Head's saloon Iwent back to the 
hotel and became a full-fledged boarder. After getting 
my Bupper I made inquiry among the boys as to the 
prospects for my securing work at my trade. They 
said there was "not much going on, but I guess after you 
have been here a few days you will find som.ething to 
do." This was not very encouraging to me, as I had to 
earn something, for I was dead broke. At bed-time 
George A. Crawford said : "You can sleep with me," and 
when we went to bed he said: 'Here is a gun, lay it 
along side of you." I said: "What's that for?" "Oh," 
he says : "We may be attacked by the Jay hawkers before 
morning, and you must use it." "Well," I said, "as I am 
into it, I will do as the balance of you do." 

The next morning I thought I would make myself 
acquainted with the town, and what the boys at the 
hotel did. I found that Col. Campbell was landlord of 
the hotel, — father of Albert Campbell. Wm. Gallaher 
was hotel clerk and postmaster. And, by-the-way, I 
think Gallaher started the first free mail delivery sys- 
tem in America, as he used to carry the letters around 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 7 

in his hat, and as he met the boys gave them their let- 
ters. George A. Crawford was president of the Town 
Company, and Ben. McDonald and Ed. Smith had 
something to do with the Town Company, as Ed. was a 
surveyor and Ben his assistant to carry the ax and drive 
stakes. Ben. looked like the dude of the crowd, as he 
wore a Daniel Webster blue coat with brass buttons. 
Burns Gordon and Joe Ray clerked for Col. Wilson. Jim 
Jones was editor of the "Fort Scott Democrat," and 
Charlie Bull was boss printer. Bill Bentley had charge 
of the vantuan game the boys played when not at work; 
the latter they did not do much of. A. R. Allison was 
the undertaker, Charles Dimon was the democratic pol- 
itician, and Tom Roberts was the republican politician. 
These two did most of the talking. 

My recollection of the town as it was when I came is, 
that the four officers' quarters now stand as they did the 
day I came At the west end across from where 'Squire 
Margrave lives, was a one-story building, the ordnance 
building. At the other end of the row of the officers' 
quarters was a one-story building, where the Lyons 
property now stands, called the commissary building. 
Out on the bluff on the east was a corrall for the live 
stock of the government. And on the side of the hill 
was a corn mill, operated by horse power. On the east 
side of the Plaza, where the Hawley houses now stands, 
were soldiers' quarters, and on the west side of the 
Plaza, where Brown's lumber yard now stands, were 
also soldiers' quarters. Where the Western Barn now 
stands a cavalry stable some two hundred feet long was 



8 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

located. On the south side, in the rear of Dilworth's 
store, was another soldiers' quarters, and the building 
now occupied as the Mrs. Terry 'bus barn, was the hos- 
pital. And where the calaboose is now located was the 
guard house. Over the well on the Plaza was a fine 
canopy of Doric architecture, and on the Plaza opposite 
•tood a brick and stone magazine. This completes my 
recollections of the fort as it was then. 

As to what there was of Fort Scott at that time, out- 
side of the fort, was the Town Company office, and 
printing office on the lot across the alley from Bamber- 
ger's, facing on what is at present Market street. Some 
two or three lots farther west on Market street was a 
one and a half story building owned by John S. Cawkins, 
an old bachelor, and further west on Market street, 
about where Prichard's store now stands, was a store 
building owned by Dr. Hill. This building fronted 
both on Market street and the Plaza. It was occupied 
as a general store. Still farther west was the bakery 
shop of Dutch Shubert, — about where O'Brien's harness 
shop is now. About where the Star Hotel stands, or 
did, was a double log-house occupied by H. T. Wilson 
as a store, which had been the sutler store of the post- 
On the corner of National avenue and First street, 
where the feed store now stands, stood what was called 
Fort Roach, a good-sized log-house. Diagonally across 
the street on the same lot that the Tribune building 
now occupies stood a house about half finished. The 
builders fell by the wayside for the want of funds. Out 
ftbout where the Presbyterian church now stands was 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 9 

\rhat was known as the Government Field ; where stands 
what is now called the Robley building, occupied by W.C. 
Gunn, was a blacksmith shop, belonging to a man named 
Kelley. Back and north of the post buildings was a log 
house in which 'Squire Margrave lived. This comprises 
all there was of the town west of Buck Run, except the 
saw mill put up by Alex. McDonald and Ed. Bowen, and 
it stood at about First and Ransom streets, on the East 
Side. The only building that I recollect as being over 
there then was a house somewhere near First and Mar- 
grave streets, occupied by Charles Haynes and family. 
This house had its sides as well as its roof shingled, and 
being a carpenter, my attention was drawn particularly 
to that fact. The only other house that I recollect of 
on the East Side, was occupied by a man by the name of 
Winfield, that stood about in the neighborhood of En- 
gineer Fisher's house on Wall street. The ground be- 
tween where the Tremont house stands and the bluff 
where Fishers's house is located, was densely covered 
with trees and underbrush. There was only a pathway 
from the Haynes house and the Winfield house to the 
west part of the town at that time. 

Those who were then living here, as I recollect, be- 
sides the parties mentioned who were at the Free State 
Hotel, were Governor Ransom and family. Judge Joe 
Williams and family, Sam Williams and family, George 
W. Clark and family, C. H. Haynes and family, H. T. 
Wilson and family, 'Squire Margrave and family, T. W. 
Tallman and family, Dr. Couch and family, B. F. Riggin 
and family, Blake Little and family, Dr. Hill and family, 



10 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIOKS OF 

Dr. Bills and family, Old Roach and family, Jack Harris 
and family, 'Squire Bullock and family, Bill Linn, J. S. 
Cawkins, Solomon P. Hall, Kelley, the blacksmith, Ed. 
Wiggins, Dutch Shubert, the baker, Charles Osbun, 
Lawyer Simms and Old Funk, the fisherman. 

As far as I can recollect the population was only 
increased during the year of 1858, by the following 
arrivals early in May : George Daniels, A. F. Bicking, 
Dick Phillips, all carpenters; also in the same month 
came Alex. McDonald and wife, (he had been here be- 
fore, but w^ent back for his family;) Uncle Billy Smith 
and family, Jake White. Bill Dennison, Saul Eaton, and 
in June came C. F. Drake, and later on Ed. Marble. As 
far as I can recollect this comprises the arrivals in 1858, 
after my arrival. 

The politics of the inhabitants at that time was 
border ruffian, pro-slavery democrats, and free-state 
democrats. There were only two republicans, Tom 
Roberts and Old Roach. The free-state and pro-slavery 
democrats were about equal in numbers. The border 
ruffian element, some times here and some times away, 
was Ben. Hill, Brockett, Hamilton, Roof Roach and Joe 
Price There were others, but 1 do not remember their 
names. Almost all the inhabitants lived in the old fort 
building, the soldiers' quarters on the south side of the 
square, in the rear of Dilworth's store. It was then 
called the Pro-Slavery hotel, and v/as kept by Jack 
Harris and Bill Linn. The foregoing comprise my 
recollections of Fort Scott and its inhabitants in 1859. 



THE EAKLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 11 

It was Thursday evening when I arrived at Fort 
Scott. On the next day 1 had a conversation with 
George A. Crawford, looking to my future welfare. He 
says: "Charlie, the first thing you do, pick out a claim, 
as all the boys have their claims." By-the-way, the land 
here had not been surveyed by the government, and was 
not until 1860, Some of the boys said they knew a claim 
that a party had taken, who had left the country. This 
claim was one-half mile west of the present Harmon 
Catt farm. The manner of taking a claim was to lay 
four logs in the form of a square. So I went out and 
moved the old logs some fifty feet and laid the new 
foundation, as we called it then, *a new right to the 
jand.' This foundation was supposed to hold the claim 
for a short time. And before this time run out, if you 
wanted to pre-empt the land you had to build a house 
or a shanty some ten or twelve feet square and make it 
your home, or call it your home, and live there for six 
months before you could use your pre-emption right. 
Before my foundation rights run out I had a load of 
lumber, mostly slabs, picked up at McDonald & Bowen's 
mills, hauled them out and made a bargain with A. F. 
Bicking to come out and help me build. I took my 
dinner with me and went out to build my shanty, but 
Bicking failed to keep his contract, and as I had no help 
I came away and never did build a shanty, or use my 
pre-emption right, and afterwards made up my mind 
that when the land sale came, later on, I would enter 
the land, as I found, that owing to the border ruffianism 
and Jayhawk troubles there was not likely to be many 



12 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

people here to buy government land at the land sale, 
which came, I think, in 1860. In the meantime I had 
bought, by giving my note, of John Kaufman, of Mil- 
ton, Pa., an old soldier of the War of 1812, aland war- 
rant for 160 acres of land. So I paid for my 160 acres 
with this warrant, and at last got myself a farm, which 
was the height of my ambition when I left my Penn- 
sylvania home. Well, as I had settled my claim on the 
31st day of May, Saturday, I made inquiry for some- 
thing to do. On Sunday J. S. Cawkins, who was then 
carrying the mail from here to Coffeechee, forty miles 
west on the Neosho river, said: "I am sick, and can't 
make the trip this week," and asked me to make the 
trip for him, and that he would furnish me a horse and 
sulky and pay me ?5.00 for the trip, which I could make 
in two days. I jumped at the offer. So on Monday, 
May 2d, I started out with an old roan horse, rope har- 
ness and an old sulky. I was told to stop at Turkey 
Creek, near where Uniontown now stands, and have the 
postmaster there take the mail-bag and get what mail 
there was in the postof!ice. I drove up about noon and 
saw a woman washing and asked her if the postmaster 
was in. She says: "I will attend to it." She opened 
the mail bag and behold, all the mail there was in the 
bag was one copy of Horace Greeley's New York 
Tribune, and it was for the postmaster at Coffeechee. 

After leaving Turkey Creek I had some twenty miles 
to make. Some six or eight miles west of Turkey Creek 
the roads forked, one road led to Le Roy, the other to 
Coffeechee. When I got a mile west of the forks of the 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 13 

road my old horse balked and would not go any farther. 
So I thought I would let him graze awhile and likely 
then he would go on. I laid down on a gopher hill for 
about an hour, and then tried to get him to go, but he 
would not move. I was in a dilemma, not knowing 
what to do. I turned the horse around with his head 
toward Turkey Creek to see if he would go that direc- 
tion, and found he would. As it was getting late and 
having some fifteen miles yet to make to reach Coffee- 
chee, and fearing that I would have to lay out all night 
on the wild prairie, I decided to go back to Turkey 
Creek and stay all night and take a new start in the 
morning. I started my horse and jumped in and the 
old horse went back as though he enjoyed it, showing: 
that he would rather go east than west. I reached 
Turkey Creek, and the postmaster whom I stopped with 
says, "What is the matter?" and I said "My horse would 
not go west and I came to stay with you tonight and 
make a new start in the morning." In the morning I 
says to the postmaster: "Will you please keep my horse 
until I return?" "Why, boy, what do you mean?" he 
says. "I says : "I won't be bothered any more with that 
horse, as he does not like to go west; I will take the 
mail bag and foot it to Cofifeechee ; I've got the whole 
day before me, and horse or no horse, I'm bound to carry 
this mail according to contract." "Oh," he says, "You 
are foolish ; take the horse and try it again." And he 
persuaded me to do so. I did, but behold ! when I got 
to the same gopher hill the old horse stopped again. 
The point where he stopped was just at the foot of a 



14 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

hill on the prairie, so I took hold of the bridle and find- 
ing that he would lead, lead him up the hill, and when 
it commenced going down on the other side, I started 
him ott on a walk and jumped in the rear of the sulky 
so he could not see me, and away he went without any 
more trouble. Reaching Coffeechee about five o'clock 
dry and hungry, I drove up to the hotel— store— dwell- 
ing house and postoffice all combined, and handed the 
postmaster the mailbag, feeling proud that 1 had so far 
finished my contract. All there was of Coffeechee was a 
hotel, store building and the universal blacksmith 
shop, and I guess, a small house or two. The usual 
loungers' flat rail was found in front of the hotel. After 
supper as I w^as sitting on this rail, a man rode up on a 
horse, tied him to this rail and went into the store. He 
had not been gone ten minutes before another man 
came up, unhitched the horse, and rode him off east. I 
thought there was nothing peculiar in the incident 
until a few minutes later, when the man who tied the 
horse to the rail came out and said : "Young man, where 
is my horse?" "There he goes," I says, pointing east ; "I 
guess one of your friends is playing a joke on you." He 
ripped out an oath and said a thief was stealing his 
horse. He fussed around and got another horse and 
started away after his horse. I began to think I had 
got into a hard country. And as I had a pistol which I 
had borrowed from Ben McDonald, (never having car- 
ried a pistol before or since), I went down on the banki 
of the Neosho river to practice. On my return to the 
hotel I found that the fellow who had gone off after his 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 15 

hoise had come back and claimed that the thief had got 
away, and showed a fresh hole in the horse's ear, saying 
that the thief had shot at him and that he had had a 
close call. The following fall I met a party from Cof- 
feechee and told him the horse thief incident. "Oh, I 
will explain that," he says, ''There was a gang of horse 
thieves stealing horses from the Verdigris river country 
and the program was for one man to ride a horse into a 
town the same way this happened, where another of the 
gang would be on hand to ride him away as the fellow 
did at Coffeechee." 

I left Coffeechee next morning, Wednesday, and as 
my horse liked going east better than going west, I got 
back to Fort Scott Wednesday night with my face all 
blistered up by the sun, as I wore an oil-cloth glazed 
cap, having expended ^2.50 for expense, I had $2.50 left, 
the first money I had earned in Kansas. At this time 
there were no settlements between here and the Neosho 
river, except Turkey Creek. When I returned to Fort 
Scott the United States court was in session, and Jim 
Jones acting, as marshal, summoned me as a juryman. 
Judge Joe Williams held United States court here twice 
a year. And as the jurymen summoned from a distance 
hardly ever came, it was a soft snap for the boys each- 
spring and fall to get to be jurymen and draw two dol- 
lars a day. The principal business of the court was 
Indian business. As the court held eleven days 1 got 
$22.00 paid in scrip. This I turned over to Col. Campbell 
to pay for board. So the first money I earned in Kansas 
was from the government crib. 



16 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

I now looked around for something to do at my 
trade. William Gallaher concluded to move the post- 
office from the hotel to the first story of the Town Com- 
pany building. I made arrangements with him at $3.00 
per day to fix up the office. That gave me a job for ten 
days. I carried the lumber for the work from the saw 
mill on my back. I made the boxes of walnut lumber, 
as that was the best we had in those days for that kind 
of work. To get lumber suitable to make a batton door 
which was needed in the building, I had to use six dif- 
ferent kinds of lumber. After the postoffice was fitted 
up Gallaher and I slept there for some months during 
the summer of 1858. All we had for bed clothes were 
the mail bags and a sheet or two. When the sheets got 
dirty we burned them instead of getting them washed. 
After getting the postoffice work finished 1 picked up 
odd jobs for a while. 

In June I commenced to build myself a shop and 
called myself a full fledged contractor. This shop was 
built where the building now stands which is occupied 
by Hurst & Co.'s poultry business, on Scott avenue. 
About this time Ben McDonald and Al. Campbell, cap. 
italists, concluded to build a house and contracted with 
me to boss the job at $3.00 a day,— and they were to be 
the helpers. This house was built where the present 
Hill block is, and at that time was away out on cheap 
lots, and you bet it was a cheap house. Al. Campbell 
made the shingles for the house. McDonald & Campbell 
were both very crude carpenters. Ben did not like the 




C. H. OSBUN, Vice-Pki 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 17 

idea of getting on a scaffold, and he proposed he would 
cut the siding while I nailed it on. Ben was a great 
fellow to shirk hard work or danger. 

The next job 1 got was a contract to build a house 
for Dr. Bills, with whom I boarded at this time. I was 
to take my pay in board and fruit trees, which I was 
going to put on my claim. The house was built on a 
lot where the Lotterer building now stands and is now- 
occupied by Cheap Charley. Later years Charley Drake 
moved the house to the lot where the building occupied 
by Randolph's store now stands, and Drake lived there 
until he built his present home. 

In the fall of the year I contracted to build what 
was then considered a large building for Ben. Riggins 
for a store house, on the lot where the present McCord 
building now stands, corner of Market street and Lincoln 
avenue. This was a full two-story building 18x60; and 
my profits on this job made me feel as though I was on 
a fair way to riches. To make the sash doors for the 
front I had some old walnut columns which were left 
from the fort buildings, taken to the saw mill and made 
into two-inch lumber. I finished this building in De- 
cember. To the best of my recollection the buildings 
here mentioned were all that were built in 1858, except 
the house which Uncle Billy Smith built for himself at 
the corner of Scott avenue and First street, where Bear- 
man's Mattress factory is now located. 

Incidents that occurred to my recollection during 
the year 1858, in Fort Scott, were as follows : The day 
before I came the border ruffian crowd ordered George 



18 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

A. Crawford, William Gallaher and Charley Dimon 
free state democrats, to leave town under penalty of 
death if they did not. They did not leave, nor did they 
get killed. The same crowd of border ruffians, after the 
Marias des Cygne massacre in Linn County, (which oc" 
curred a short time after my arrival,) in which there 
was every reason to believe they took part, left the 
country for the country's good. There were continual 
rumors that the Jayhawkers were coming to burn the 
town. One Sunday, I think it was in June, a crowd 
of some sixty men, headed by John Hamilton, no rela- 
tion to the border ruffian Hamilton, came rushing 
across the Plaza to General Clark's house, which is now 
known as the Blair house, to arrest said Clark, — for 
what cause I do not remember. At that time there was 
a battery company commanded by Lieutenant Finch, 
camped about the south side of Market Square. Lieu- 
tenant Finch interfered with the crowd and took Gen- 
eral Clark from them and said he would be responsible 
for him. General Clark was the receiver of the United 
States land office and claimed the protection of the 
government troops. The crowd left town without any 
more demonstrations. 

A few days after this Sunday raid we received word 
from the Jayhawkers to meet at Rayville on the Osage 
to attend a meeting of the citizens of Bourbon county 
to try and adjust the troubles that were going on. All 
the free state boys that were here and who could get a 
horse to ride, under the leadership of Jim Jones, went 
up there, and met quite a crowd. Jones was the spokes- 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 19 

man for our side, and Montgomery for the other side, 
assisted by a large blacksmith,— don't remember his 
name,— who had more to say than Montgomery did. 
The Montgomery party beat us on every vote that was 
taken on motions and resolutions proposed. The vote 
was taken by the crowd dividing. We were outvoted 
three to one, so we left without anything being accom- 
plished to settle the trouble, and we rode home feeling 
that we had done our duty. 

About a month after this meeting at Rayville Gov- 
ernor Denver came to Fort Scott to see if he could not 
quiet the troubles in this county. He had given notice 
of his coming and most all the settlers of the county 
came to attend the meeting. Denver, after making 
quite a conciliatory speech, asked all the old county 
officers to resign and have the people select who they 
wanted for office in their place. He then appointed 
the parties selected by the people for office, and after 
his return to LeCompton, then the state capital, sent 
them their commissions. This was called the "Denver 
Compromise," but this compromise did not last long, as 
the following incidents prove that the Jayhawkers 
were still alive and full of mischief. 

Later on in the summer Montgomery's gang ran a 
load of hay up against the west side of the Pro-Slavery 
hotel and then to keep any one from extinguishing the 
fire kept up a continual firing at it until it burned up. 
The siding of the building being thick oak lumber, the 
hay outside burned up so quickly that it did not set the 
building on fire. Montgomery's men fired from long 



20 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 



range with their Sharp rifles from a point west of the 
Star hotel, where there was a lot of timber to conceal 
them, but left immediately after the hay burned up. 

In July, 1858, while 1 was building my shop, and 
before it was completed, I had a shed at one side to 
work under and had got an order to make a coffin 
among other odd jobs that I had to do. This coffin was 
for a man by the name of Hart. I made the coffin of 
green walnut lumber and covered it witli alapaca. In 
those days this was considered a fine job. I had stood 
the coffin up against the side of my shop. That night 
there came up a terrible thunder storm, and about mid- 
night, thinking the coffin I had made might blow over 
and roll out from under the shed and get wet, and that 
I would have to re-cover it, to save it, and determined 
to see if the coffin was safe, I went boldly down to the 
shop. It was so dark I could only see when it light- 
ninged and upon arrival found the coffin had, as I feared, 
blown over and only got there in time to save it. It being 
very heavy it was just as much as I could do to get it 
into a safe position. While there, all I thought of was 
to save my work, but when I got through and started 
away the situation flashed on my mind, and I became 
so frightened and shook so I could hardly walk to my 
room. 

When I came to Fort Scott the Osage Indian tribe 
was located at Osage Missiori, now St. Paul, some 
thirty-eight miles southwest from Fort Scott. The 
summer of '58, members of that tribe used to come to 
Fort Scott to sell their ponies and robes and do their 



1 

he I 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 21 

trading. They would close out their stock at so many- 
buttons, each button representing one dollar in money, 
then they would buy what goods they wanted at one 
dollar's worth at the time until they had traded up all 
the bullion they had got for their ponies and robes. 
The bucks were fine specimens of large, healthy look- 
ing fellows; the squaws not so imposing looking as the 
bucks, but did all the work of taking charge of the 
goods and packing the ponies. The young bucks, or 
sports of the tribe, were pretty lively at times— espec- 
ially when they get hold of fire-water. They were in- 
veterate gamblers. I have seen them sitting on the 
banks of the Marmaton, playing poker, using tobacco, 
jack knives, belts, beads or any other article they might 
possess as stakes. Several times during the years 1858 
to 1860, the Osages came and gave us their Indian 
dances on the Fort parade, which is now called the 
Plaza. It was not long until a lot of our boys became 
expert Indian dancers, and at some of our jubilees, 
especially after fire-water had flown freely, went through 
all the phases of the Indian dance. They could dis- 
count the Indians, especially as to the length of time 
dancing. Bill Norway, Ken Williams and myself were 
generally the leaders in these Indian dances, and George 
Clark beat the tom tom. These dances were held quite 
frequently, especially for the tender-feet that came 
among us. 

The first church service 1 knew of being held in 
Fort Scott was in the spring of '58. A Southern Metho- 
dist circuit rider used to hold services occasionally in 



'SZ MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

the old hospital building. One night I was at church, 
the room was well crowded, especiallj' the front part of 
the room. Col. Arnett, the father of Mrs. Kendall and 
Jack Arnett, as most the old settlers remember, got up 
in the rear of the room and said : "You'ns in front re- 
vert back here where there is more room." It was but 
a few moments after the old Colonel made this remark 
that he dropped dead from heart failure. This incident 
broke up the meeting. Of course there was a chaplain 
in the army whom we used to hear preach occasionally. 

The families of Ransom, Clark, Haynes and Camp- 
bell, being of the Episcopal faith, and Chaplain Reyn- 
olds of the army being an Episcopal clergyman, decided 
to organize an Episcopal church that summer. This, I 
think, was the first church organized here, aside from 
the South Methodist, which was in existence at the 
time. A few months later Aunt Jane Smith, Mrs. Jew- 
ell, and a few other ladies and one lone man, J. S. Caw- 
kins, an old bachelor, organized the Presbyterian 
church. The hospital building was used for different 
church services until later years. 

Chaplain Reynolds in organizing the Episcopal 
church took George Clark, Willis Ransom, C. H. Haynes, 
Ben McDonald and myself, to make the five vestrymen 
needed to organize the church. We met in the old land 
office building, and as we came out we met Soloman P. 
Hall sitting on the steps of the land office. He said : 
"Boys, been having a game?" "No," said Willis Ran- 
som; "We have just organized an Episcopal church 
and us five are vestrymen." Hall said : "You are a hell 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 23 

of a set to start a church; you are better suited to run 
a saloon or variety show." I served as a vestryman, I 
think, from 1858 'til about 1863, when they put me out 
and put E. M. Hulett in my place, (and by-the-way, 1 
never considered Hulett much of an improvement over 
myself.) In the early days of the Episcopal church 
Mrs. C. H. Haynes took the lead the same as she does at 
the present time, and Aunt Jane Smith was the leader 
of the Presbyterian church. I suppose owing to the 
character of the first vestry Joe Ray and Jack White 
used to call it the "Whiskeypalian church." 

As to lodges— there was when I came here only the 
Masonic lodge in existence, and it did not do much 
toward getting new members until the year '60 and '61. 
I took the first degree in February, 1861, and before 
they held another meeting the war broke out, and the 
lodge did not meet again until after the war, when 
Charley Van Fossen, Sheriff Wheaton, and some more 
kindred spirits run it for all it was worth. I never had 
any desire to go any farther into the mysteries of Ma- 
sonry. The Odd Fellows lodge, I think, was organized 
in the year 1866. John Crow, S. A. Williams, Shannon, 
and some others, I think, organized the lodge here. In 
1866, I, with C. H. Osbun and John G. Stewart, took the 
first degree in the lodge ; but I never went further. I 
found I had enough business to attend to, both day and 
night, without wasting any of my time with lodge 
affairs. So the only lodges or secret societies of which 1 
have been a full fledged member was The Sons of Malta, 
in 1860, and the Hoo-Hoo of the present day. 



24 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF ^^M 

There was a vigilance committee in the country 
during the fall of 1858, and some time late in the fall 
they arrested a man by the name of Ben Rice. He stole 
'Squire Redfield's horse over in Missouri, some ten miles j 
east of Fort Scott, and brought it to Kansas. Rice was 
caught with the horse in his possession, and was locked 
up in the Free State hotel where he was held as a pris- 
oner. On the morning of the 16th day of December, 
1858, at day-break, about one hundred men belonging to 
the Jayhawker gang under Brown, Montgomery and 
Jenison, came in and released Ben Rice, robbed Blake 
Little's store, killed his son, John Little, and fired on 
other parties promiscuously. They ordered breakfast 
at the Pro-Slavery hotel and then were afraid to eat it 
for fear of poison. The night before they came in they 
camped at Hell's Bend on the Marmaton and held a 
conference as to who should be leader. Brown, Mont- 
gomery or Jenison, and they selected Montgomery. This 
selection was a good thing for Fort Scott for if Brown had 
been leader he would have burned the town, being very 
vindictive, and Jenison would have robbed everybody, 
as that was his part. Montgomery was a very strong 
abolitionist, but strictly honest in his views, cool in 
behavior, and had good control of his men. Jenison 
was along and did some big stealing on his own hook. 
Brown would not come along because he could not be 
in command, but the same parties that were hung with 
Brown at Harper's Ferry, in Virginia, were with him 
here and did some loud talking, and said the time was 
not far distant when they would see Missouri overrun 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 25 

with blood. Their prophecy was not long in coming 
true,— a few years later. At the time of the above raid 
I was boarding with Alex. McDonald, who lived in the 
west end of what was called the Blair house on the 
Plaza, and was sleeping in the parlor in the front of the 
house. Hearing a noise I looked out and saw parties 
arresting Governor Ransom. He lived in the east end 
of the same house. I awakened Alex. McDonald and 
"Ben. McDonald and Jack White who slept up stairs. I 
told Alex, what was going on and he thereupon opened 
the front door to look out ; he had no more than done 
so when a party behind a tree, in front of the house, said 
to him : "Surrender !" Alex, said, "Be damned if I do ;" 
and stepped in and closed the door. As he done so, the 
party put a Sharp's rifle ball through the center of the 
door, but as Alex, had stepped to one side of the door 
the ball did not hit him. I was standing at the time in 
the door leading from the parlor to the hall. The bullet 
struck the hard studding of the partition and rebounded 
and fell on the floor of the hall. The party that shot at 
McDonald returned to the crowd and remarked that he 
"had plugged one border ruffian." This party proved 
afterwards to have been Col. Jenison. After this shoot- 
ing I looked towards the Free State hotel and saw a 
great crowd there ; so Ben, Jack and I concluded to go 
down and see what was going on. When we got there 
we walked right into the crowd and the first thing we 
knew we were among a lot of the Fort Scott boys who 
were surrounded by a lot of Jayhawkers with their 
Sharp's rifles. Bill Bentley and Bill Dennison, said. 



26 ME3I0IRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

"Boys, I guess you are prisoners with the balance of 
us." I said, "I guess not," and remarked to Ben and 
Jack, "Let's go back to the house." We started, but the 
Jayhawkers stopped Ben. and Jack, but did not stop me. 
The Jayhawkers shot at different parties that morning, 
among others a man by the name of Ed. Marble, going 
across the Plaza, they battered away at him, but did not 
hit him. This caused Joe Ray to make the remark that 
the Jayhawkers were very playful that morning, as they 
were shooting at Marbles on the Plaza. This wound up 
the J ay hawk troubles for 1858. At this time all the citi- 
zens of Fort Scott were either pro-slavery or free state 
democrats, except Tom Roberts and Old Roach, who 
being the only republicans, naturally were quite 
intimate. Roach and his wife used to quarrel a great 
deal, and one time Roberts fixed up a compromise be- 
tween them, but it did not last long, as one morning Old 
Roach came over to the hotel all covered with blood and 
some of the boys said, "Roach, what is the matter?" and 
he said : "The old woman hit me over the head with a 
rolling pin," which was the effect of misplaced confi- 
dence in Tom Roberts' compromise, Mrs, Roach and 
her daughter were the washerwomen for all of us boys 
We used to mark our shirts with a stitch of different 
colored thread. Fort Roach, as we used to call the 
house the Roach family lived in, was a resort for the 
boys where they danced on the puncheon floor. Roach 
and his family were from Posey county, Indiana, and 
the music at the dance was generally to the tune of 
.'Hell on the Wabash," 



THE EAKLY DAYS OF FORI SCOTT. 27 

About all the people who were here in 1858, when I 
came who are now living, are our present citizens 'Squire 
Margrave, Mrs. Mary Brumbley, C. F. Drake, Mr. and 
Mrs. C. H. Haynes, Mr. and Mrs. T. W. Tallman, Mrs. 
Dr. Couch, Mrs. C. W. Goodlander (nee) Wilson, C. H. 
Osbun, Mrs. T. F. Robley (nee) Wilson, Mrs. S A. Wil- 
liams, Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Campbell, E. L. Marble, B. P, 
McDonald ; and to my knowledge others now living are 
Alex. McDonald, of New York, Jim Jones, of New York, 
Ed. Smith, of California, and Bill Dennison, of Vernon 
county, Mo., Tom Roberts, of Ohio, George Clark of 
Toledo, Charley Bull, of White Oaks, N. M., Bill Linn, of 
Wichita Falls, Texas. 

As Marshal Little had been killed in the J ay hawk 
raid of December 16th, 1858, Col. Campbell was appointed 
United States marshal for this place. So the fore part 
of January, 1859, he organized three marshal's possea 
with John Hamilton, Alex. McDonald and himself as 
captains. This was done by order of the government, 
thinking it would be the most effective way to keep 
quiet in this territory. John Hamilton had been first 
sargeant in the regular army and was well posted in 
military tactics, and he used to put us through the 
drill on the fort parade ground. There was a guard 
posted at three different points at night, one east of the 
fort grounds and one west, and one at what was called 
Fort Roach, where the Roach family lived, which is now 
the northwest corner of National avenue and First 
street. This at that time was considered a great dis- 
tance out and most of us did not like to be sent to that 



28 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

post. The upstairs of the old hospital building was 
used as guard house, where those that were not out 
on guard would keep up a pretty lively time at night. 
One night there was an alarm about eleven o'clock that 
the Jayhawkers were crossing at the Military ford, near 
the mouth of Mill Creek. Captain McDonald was or- 
dered to take his company down there.. At that time 
there was a road in the bottom, to the fort, through a 
dense timber and undergrowth, so that you could not 
see twenty feet from the road. I was a member of Mc- 
Donald's company, and when we came near the ford we 
heard some parties on the bank of the river. As we 
marched up toward the party McDonald, in a loud mili- 
tary demand said, "Who is there, friend or foe?" when 
lo, and behold it was nothing but an old couple camped 
for the night, and Captain McDonald's demand scared 
them from their peaceful slumbers. McDonald marched 
his company back and reported to Marshal Campbell 
that all was quiet on the Marmaton. This marshal's 
organization was kept up during the winter and summer 
of 1859. During the same time there was a vigilance 
committee kept up in the county. Early in the fall be- 
tween the marshal's posse in town and the vigilance 
committee in the country there were several parties who 
were arrested for horse stealing. Marshal Campbell 
ordered them to be taken to Lawrence under guard 
selected from Captain Hamilton's and Captain McDon- 
ald's companies. Capt. Hamilton and Capt. McDonald 
were ordered to take charge of said guard while Mar- 
shal Campbell took charge of what was left of both 



THE EARLY DAYS OV FORT SCOTT. 29^ 

companies to protect the town in the absence of Hamil- 
ton and McDonald, All went well with Capt. Hamilton 
and party till they reached the Waukarusha bottom 
south of Lawrence, when Jim Lane, who had been in- 
formed of the coming of this posse and prisoners, raised 
the cry that the notorious border ruffian Hamilton, was 
coming with free state men prisoners, and he. Lane, 
raised a mob and went out and met Hamilton and his 
guard at the edge of town, and released the prisoners 
and marched Capts. Hamilton and McDonald and their 
men into Lawrence as prisoners. It was soon explained 
and Lane ordered Hamilton and party released and they 
came home quite crestfallen. This was the end of the 
marshal's posse, as at this time there was a company of 
United States regulars sent here to back up Marshal 
Campbell. 

April 18th, 1859, was the first city election. Joe Ray 
was elected mayor for two years ; Alex. McDonald wa& 
elected treasurer; Sam Williams clerk; Uncle Billy 
Smith and two others, councilmen,— I don't remember 
their names,— Charley Bull, marshal. Ray, during his 
term of office, pre-empted the land that was subsequently 
used for the Fort Scott town site, for the town company. 
During Joe's term of mayorship in the summer of '59, 
Col. Jim Lane came here to make a speech on the rul- 
ing troubles of the times, and a meeting was called, and 
Joe, being mayor, we claimed it was his place to intro- 
duce Jim Lane. Now, Joe disliked Lane so much that 
it was a bitter pill for Joe to swallow. The meeting was 
called in front of the land office, a building that stood 



30 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

where Brown's lumber yard is now located. There was 
a large two-story porch in front of said building, and 
this porch was crowded with people, and a large crowd 
on the ground in front of the building. Joe being of a 
very timid nature and being very much confused in his 
position, of chairman, and intending to advise some of 
the people to leave the porch, he blunderingly reversed 
what he intended by remarking, "There being so many 
on the ground some of you will please come upon the 
porch where there is more room." This started the 
people to laughter, and confused him more, and again 
gathering courage, and just as he started to make his 
speech introducing the speaker, Jim Lane, a large mule, 
attached to a wagon near by, made an unearthly bray ; 
this again upset Joe, and when the mule had finished 
he said: "Mr. Mule, if you wish to monopolize this 
meeting, I think you are more suitable than I am to 
introduce the honorable gent., so I will retire in your 
favor." This was the outcome of Joe's lirst attempt as 
mayor to introduce a speaker. As I have said before, 
Joe was the wag of the town. He made a great many 
witty remarks and committed a great many blunders. 

There was more or less building during the year of 
1859, and the number of inhabitants increased. I built 
that year a large house for Ben. Riggin on a farm east 
of town. Later, Dr. Couch bought this farm, and I 
think the Widow Couch lives now in this same house- 
The same year I built a store house for Alex. McDonald 
on the corner of Wall street and Scott avenue, where 
Nelson & Weedon's grocery how stands. The latter part 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 31 

of '59 and the early part of '60 Col. Wilson had a large 
store built about where John Glunz's building now is, 
aDd 'Squire Margrave built a building for saloon pur- 
poses about where Aronson's store now is. This was the 
first building built for a saloon and sporting purposes 
in the town. The front part was used as a saloon and 
the rear part for the "national game." The first keg 
beer that was brought to Fort Scott was distributed to 
the boys from Margrave's saloon and was the great 
event of the day. In the summer of 1860, when the 
winds were so hot you had to get in a room and close 
the doors to keep cool, we mostly selected Margrave's 
saloon for this purpose and filled up on cold beer. The 
drouth of 1860 has passed into history as all know. J\.s 
a sample of it I will say the water in the Marmaton did 
not run oyer the fording places for eighteen months- 
About the only thing that grew, to my knowledge, was 
sorghum cane, — about the only crop that season, except 
some rattle snakes, I raised on my claim. I had planted 
several acres of potatoes that spring and about the time 
I thought there should be some potatoes I was going 
past the place with Dr. Redfield on his way home from 
seeing a patient from Drywood. I said, "Doc, come let's 
get a good mess of potatoes. We opened up a half dozen 
hills and we found in three of the hills each a rattle- 
snake, and in the others we found nothing. My potato 
crop was a failure. Dr. Redfield was somewhat like my 
friend Aikman. When he went to see a patient in the 
country he always liked to call some one to go as 
company. 



32 



MEMOIRS AXD RECOLLECTIONS OF 



The year 1859 brought quite a number of good citi- 
zens to Fort Scott, about all free state democrats- 
Among the arrivals in '59 were General Blair and fam- 
ily, Robert Stewart and family, Mr. Jenkins and family 
and Wm. Dorey, and numerous others whom I do not 
now remember. Fort Scott by this time was getting to 
be quite a society place, as the following invitations 
to a cotillion party July 22, 1859, and New Year's ball 
in January, 1860, will show : 



COTILLION PARTY. 

Miss Elizabeth Wilson : 

The pleasure of your company is respectfully solic- 
ited to attend a Cotillion Party at the Western hotel, 
Messrs. Linn & Harris, proprietors, Fort Scott, K. T., 
on Friday evening, July 22d, 1859. 

INVITATION COMMITTEE. 



Burns Gordon, 
J. J. Farley, 
E.- A. Smith, 

B. P. McDonald, 

E. W. Finch, 
John Dillon, 

C. F. Drake, 



J. W. Buchanan, 
L, A. McCord, 
W. C. Dennison, 
A. H. Campbell. 

MANAGERS. 

Joe Ray, 

A. R. Allison, 

C. W. Goodlander. 



MUSICIANS. 

Messrs. Mottram & Gee. 




C. B. Mcdonald, Cashier 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 33 

NEW YEAR'S BALL. 
Miss E. C. Wilson: 

The pleasure of your company is respectfully solic- 
ited to attend a New Year's ball, at the Western hotel, 
Fort Scott, K. T., W. I. Linn, proprietor, on Monday 
evening, January 2nd, 1860. 

COMMITTEE ON INVITATION. 

Joseph Ray, B. P. McDonald, 

C. F. Drake, John Dillon, 

H. Harkness, W. C. Dennison, 

Isaac Stadden, John Denton, 

Moses Fisk, Jos. Custard, 

J. M. Hoffnagle, W. H. Norway. 

CCOMMITTEE ON ARRANGEMENTS. 

A. J. Watsrhouse, R. L. Phillips, 

Wm. Bentley, J. W. Buchanan, 

T. M. Williams, Wm. Judson, 

C. W. Goodlander, Jos. Williams, 

A. R. Allison. 

FLOOR MANAGERS. 

E. V/. Finch, S. B. Gordon, 

Wm. Gallaher, E. A. Smith, 

Chas. Bull, Chas. Dimon, 

Music by the "Port Scott Quadrille Band." 



These invitations are fac-similes, now in the hands 
of my wife, preserved by her as her first invitations to a 
dance, at the age of ten years. These two parties were 



MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

the first public dances held in Fort Scott. At that time 
a girl of ten years and a grandmother of eighty was 
eligible to be invited to a ball, in order to equal the 
number of the opposite sex. 

In 1860 I built a residence for Alex. McDonald on a 
lot where the Union block now stands. This was the first 
residence built of any pretensions, outside of the gov- 
ernment quarters and at that time v/as considered the 
palace of Fort Scott. Alex, made this residence a wel- 
come place for all his friends, and many lively times 
■were had there within its walls. New Year's calls in 
those days was quite a fad, and what few families were 
here always kept open house. This house of Alex's is 
the one where a lot of us were calling on New Year's 
day, when a young tinner by trade, now a staid banker 
of Fort Scott, rode his horse up the steps and into the 
dining room, took his driflk from the hostess on horse- 
back, rode around the table and out the same way he 
came in and did no damage to glassware or anything 
else. He claimed that John Robinson, circus rider, was 
not in it with him. 

These New Year's calls in Fort Scott, in those days, 
were hard to beat for genuine hospitality, and were well 
kept up until the close of the war. In those days there 
were no cranks to dictate to the majority what they 
should do. Everybody was honest and paid their debts, 
and did as they thought best. 

The late fall of '59 was very quiet as regards Jay- 
hawk troubles, and as we needed some excitement and 
amusement "Willis Ransom, Salmon P. Hall and George 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 35 

Clark, proposed to establish the Sons of Malta Lodge, 
which at that time and previous thereto in New York 
and eastern cities was quite a rage. Willis Ransom had 
secured one of the rituals of the lodge, so in November, 
1859, Willis Ransom, Salmon P. Hall, George Clark, a 
lawyer by the name of Simms, B. P. McDonald, William 
Gallaher and myself, making seven in number, neces- 
sary for charter members, perfected an organization. 
This lodge was kept up until April, 1860, when we had 
succeeded in initiating about every man that v/as in 
town. At the closing up they had a torch-light pro- 
cession and marched around the fort parade ground 
several times, each member carrying a roll of paper, 
and then marched to the center of the parade 
ground and after a speech by Willis Ransom, who was 
the grand master, explaining that the object of the 
lodge had been accomplished, and for fear the outside 
world might get hold of the records, they v/ould now 
burn them, he touched a match to his roll and threw it 
on the ground and all the balance in solemnity marched 
around and threw their rolls into the fire and the rec- 
ords were destroyed. They then marched back to the 
hall and finished up with a dance, where the ladies, 
young and old, were to meet us after the burning of the 
records. All members of the lodge wore black domi- 
nones, and the dance was a big success. The dances 
were generally plain quadrilles to the tunes of "Hell 
on the Wabash" and " Arkansaw Traveller," and sun- 
dry tunes that all were familiar with. The dance wound 
up with refreshments in Race Harkness' restaurant 



MEMOIKS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

which was kept in the first story of the same building 
where the dance was held. The Sons of Malta Lodge 
was organized in the early '50's after the failure of 
General Lopez's invasion of Cuba and was claimed and 
supposed to take revenge on his enemies who pre- 
vented his successful invasion of Cuba. For the ben- 
fit of the uninitiated I will give some portions of the 
ritual. First, the room vvas prepared with the officers 
and members sitting around in place with the custom- 
ary mask. In the center of the room was a skeleton 
laid on a table, v.ith two persons dressed as soldiers 
guarding the same, one walking one way on one side 
and the other, the other way on the opposite side. All 
officers and members were dressed in black dominoes 
and masks. Willis Ransom was grand master, J. C. 
Simms and Salmon P. Hall, his aides. Ransom, Hall 
and Simms were all large men and looked very impos- 
ing in their costumes, especially Simms, who was a man 
six feet six, and looked like a mountain. The victim to 
be initiated was brought in, not blind-folded, so he 
could see all. The first degree was very solemn, and 
the words the victim heard, impressed on him the fact 
that the step he was about to take was a very serious 
affair, and he found it so by the time he got through. 
After the victim was taken out all things in the room 
were changed and prepared for action. The victim was 
then brought in blind-folded and taken before the 
grand master who put several questions to him. Among 
others he was asked whether if he was going to attack 
Cuba would he lie and wait and steal in upon it, or 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 37 

would he make a bold dash. The victim generally said 
he would lie and wait and steal in upon it. This remark 
would be taken up by the recorder, who, speaking 
through a large trumpet, would say, "He lies and steals, 
let it be recorded," — all members saying the same in 
solemn voice, ^''ext the grand master would say, "Try 
his marching qualities." The victim was then marched 
around the room and every object imaginable thrown in 
his way, so that by the time he got around the room he be- 
gan to think the subjection of Cuba a hard undertaking. 
Next we would try the candidate's climbing qualities, 
as there would be more or less of that to do in scaling 
forts. A ladder was put in position, one end on the 
floor and the other end on a high box, some five or six 
feet high. A member on each side of the victim 
guarded him to catch him in case he fell off. 

It was a hard struggle for him to keep on the rounds 
of the latter and step over bayonets purposely placed for 
him to climb over. He would reach the box about ex- 
hausted. While standing on the box to rest before the 
next ordeal the grand master gave a lecture about the 
importance of knowing how to swim in case he got ship- 
wrecked going to Cuba. After this lecture he was told 
there was a large tank of water before him and he must 
jump in and show his swimming qualities. Now, the 
supposed tank was a large tarpaulin some tv/enty foot 
square and held by the members. As the victim jumped 
into the tarpaulin he was tossed up several times as 
high as the ceiling. After going through several more 
trials, too numerous to mention, he was pronounced a 



38 MEMOIRS AKD KECOLLECTIONS OF 

fit recruit to attack Cuba and as he passed through the 
ordeal so well he was eligible to a seat of honor. He 
was taken to a seat and told to sit down. This seat of 
honor was a wet sponge about the size of a half bushel. 
After this he was told to sign the register, which proved 
to be an order on Race Harkness' restaurant for a sup- 
per for the members of the lodge. Then he was told to 
read the by-laws. A card some twelve inches in diame- 
ter was shown him. The card had a large figure of an 
eye in the center and around the circle of the card had 
letters placed as follows,— by reading one way, using the 
eye in the center it read, "I am a son of Malta "then 
reading the other way, using the eye in the center the 
words read, " I am sold." At one of these initiations A. 
E,. Allison and Race Harkness v/ere the victims. Hark- 
ness was a man that weighed about 250 pounds, while 
Allison weighed 125. Harkness was tossed in the tarpau- 
lin first,and being so heavy the members were not able to 
throw him very high ; Allison coming next being so light 
and using the same exertions they did with Harkness 
they threw him up against the ceiling some fourteen feet 
high and broke his arm. Each victim after being initi- 
ated always did his best to get some new one to join, so 
as to get his revenge. The lodge was a grand success 
for the winter's amusement. 

In the summer of '60 there was a dearth of excite, 
ment and amusement and as Ransom, Hall and Clark 
were always ready for fun, it was suggested that as an 
old man by the name of Cripen had recently opened up 
a pie, candy and nut store on the east size of the Plaza 



THE EAKLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 39 

and as he was more or less disturbed by some one purloin- 
ing his goods, he should complain to Eansom and Hall. 
The old man was a little off in the upper story, but he 
made his complaint and Ransom suggested that some 
one be arrested and we have a mock trial for amusement ; 
this was agreed to and it was decided to arrest batchelor 
Cawlkins. Cawlkins was arrested and court was estab- 
lished, with Salmon P. Hall as judge, Willis Ransom as 
clerk, George Clark as sheriff, and George A. Crawford as 
prosecuting attorney, while Lawyer Simms and Lawyer 
McCord were Cripen's lawyers. There was a jury 
empaneled, and all the paraphernalia of a first-class 
court established. The trial lasted a week, as it was only 
held at night, and as Judge Hall and Ransom had 
charge of the land office here they told Cripen they had 
to attend to their land offices during the day. There 
were quite a number of witnesses for Cripen, but only 
a few for Cawlkins. The oath that Judge Hall had the 
vritness take was as follows :— " You swear you will not 
tell the truth, or nothing like the truth, or if you could 
you would not tell the truth, so help you God." As 
Cripen was partly deaf he did not know the difference. 
Jack White, Bill Bently, Joe Ray, Charley Bull and my- 
self were summoned by Cripen as his witnesses. Cripen 
charged that one, Cawlkins, he had reasons to believe, 
was from time to time stealing his pies. Cawlkins was 
a crank on pie. Jack White said Cawlkins grumbled at 
the boarding house because they did not have pie ; Bill 
Bently testified that Cawlkins said he must hunt up a 
boarding house w^here they had pies to eat; Joe Ray said 



40 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

that Cawlkins asked him to take him out to some of his 
farmer friends in pumpkin season so he could get some 
pumpkin pie. Charley Bull said he heard Cawlkins make 
the remark, " if I only had pies like my mother use to 
make." Up to this time the evidence was purely cir- 
cumstantial and it looked as if they had no case against 
Cawlkins, so they called me up as the last witness, I 
testified that one morning before daylight I was going to 
my shop to make an early start to make a coffin and as I 
passed Cripen's store I saw Cawlkins coming out with 
pies in his hand. This was considered conclusive evi- 
dence against Cav\"lkins. Mr. Cawlkins produced no 
witnesses, and being an old blue stocking Presbyterian 
he said he considered his word of honor as an ofif-set to 
the gang of liars that testified against him, so after three 
nights of argument by the lawyers the case went to the 
jury, and the jury brought in a verdict that Cawlkins 
set up the drinks for the court, the attorneys, jury and 
witnesses at Race Harkness' saloon, which was in the 
basement of the building where the court was held, and 
also to send in, the coming fall, when pumpkins were 
ripe, a load of them to Cripen to make his winter's sup- 
ply of pies. The attorneys made some master arguments 
and all in all it was an enjoyable week for the gang. So 
ended victim Cripen's mock trial. 

The summer of 1860 passed undisturbed by Jay- 
hawk troubles and we felt that we were through with 
them and the town was gradually improving and busi- 
ness increasing, but in October the trouble broke out 
again. United States court was to be held the first of 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 41 

October, and there were several prisoners that were to 
be tried that belonged to the Jayhawker crowd, so 
Montgomery's gang came into tovrn and broke up the 
court and Judge Williams left for Missouri for safety. 
The same month was the advertised land sale for the 
lands that were in the market in this district, and the 
Jayhawk troubles kept land buyers away, so there were 
no sales except to parties that had claims and had not 
used their pre-emption right, so they located land war- 
rants on the claims they held. 1 was one of those that 
took my chance at locating a warrant on my land when 
the land came into market instead of using my pre- 
emption right. Along about November Ist, 1860, there 
were two traveling musicians came along, one by the 
name of Signer Forillo and the other by the name of 
George Peabody,— Forillo was a fiddler and Peabody a 
banjoist. After they had played several times for the 
boys, we concluded to hire them by the month to give 
concerts for our amusement, so we made a bargain with 
them forSlOO a month, and after the first month we let 
Peabody go, and as Signor Forillo claimed to be a danc- 
ing master, we hired him until spring to run a dancing 
school, and there is where all the early inhabitants of 
Fort Scott, both old and young, learned all they knew 
about dancing. The school was kept up until the spring 
of 1861, when the war broke out. Once a week we would 
have a dancing party and it was a great success. Cap- 
tain Lyons, afterward General Lyons, who was killed at 
the battle of Wilson's Creek, Mo., was stationed here 
that winter with his company. He was a red-headed 



42 MEMOIRS AXD RECOLLECTIONS OF 



bachelor, and he became one of Signer Forillo's scholars 
and took a great interest in the dancing until spring, 
when he with his company was ordered away. Captain 
Lyons was a very strict disciplinarian and was very 
strict with his men. At one time, to punish one of his 
men, he made him walk in the hot sun with a barrel 
over his shoulders and arms, leaving his bare head 
exposed to the hot sun ard flies, with no chance to use 
his hands to drive the flies away. Aunt Jane Smith and 
some other sympathizing ladies went to Lyons to inter- 
cede for the poor soldier, but it did no good. Many 
nights after dancing school v.'as over the men ad- 
journed to the Free State hotel, and after visiting 
Harry Hartman's bar they would frequently wind up 
with a stag dance in the office of the hotel— young and 
old. Capt. Lyons, Judge Williams, Col. Judson, and 
other older parties joined in with us younger ones and 
made the tail end of the night lively. 

In April, 1861, the second city election was held. 
Alex. McDonald was elected mayor, and I was elected 
treasurer, L'ncle Johnny Miller recorder, and Jack 
White marshal. Alex, having been city treasurer prior 
to this, turned over to me $12.50, and this was all the 
money I received while treasurer, except one-third of 
$25.00, which Jack, as marshal, collected from a prize 
fight. W^hen Jack handed it to me he said that he and 
Uncle Johnny would keep the balance for their fees. 

April, 1861, as all know, the civil war broke out, 
and Kansas, which was still a territory, was as pat- 
riotic as the balance of the north. A company of 108 



^ 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 4^ 

was raised here for three months' service by Charles 
W. Blair, who was made captain. A. R. Allison and I, 
being partners at this time in the building business, 
both enlisted, he being elected a lieutenant, I nothing 
but a private ; he afterwards persuaded me to stay at 
home and take care of the business while he went with 
the company, as he was an officer, so I stayed at home. 
The company left here for Leavenworth to be mustered 
in, but when they got there the order was not to take 
any more three months' inen, so Captain Blair and some 
of the company were mustered into the Second Kansas 
for three years, and my partner, Allison, and some 
others not liking to go in for three years' service, re- 
turned home. During the summer of 186J, and by Sep- 
tember 1st, some three thousand troops, more or less, 
collected here at Fort Scott. What troops were here 
then were under command of General .lim Lane, who 
ran things in rather a loose way. In the summer of 
1861 Jim Lane had built a fort on the north side of the 
Osage river, and named it Fort Lincoln. It was built 
on low bottom land at a point which was no more of a 
fit place for a fort than where Knapp's Park is now 
located. This fort consisted of a stockade and a large 
block house. In later years this stockade and block 
house was moved to Fort Scott and located about the 
junction of Lowman and First streets. On Sunday, the 
second day of September, '200 mules were grazing about 
where T. Yv^. Tallman's farm is located, and a detach- 
ment of Colonel Wier's regiment was in charge of them, 
when about noon a large number of rebel cavalry came 



44 MEMOIRS A^D RECOLLECTIONS OF 

from tlie east and captured the mules and drove them 
off to Missouri. The alarm was given and all the cav- 
alry that was here was ordered to give chase to the reb- 
els and try to recapture the mules. The mules were 
driven by the rebel cavalry to the east side of Big Dry- 
wood, at what is c:\lled the Lambert crossing. The 
Union cavalry which was in pursuit, followed to the 
west side of the Dry wood, v^hen lo, and behold they 
found all of Price's army in camp. It appeared that 
after the battle of Wilson's Creek in August the victo- 
rious army of the south under Price had been ordered 
to come and capture Fort Scott. That Sunday night 
when the cavalry from here went after the mules they 
expected a fight, and Avhat ambulances that were here 
<;onnected with the hospital v/ere ordered out, and the 
surgeon in charge called for volunteers and citizens to 
go out with the ambulances. Charley Bull, Joe Ray, 
Pete Smith and myself went out with one of the ambu- 
lances, and located on the hill about where the east end 
of Wall street is now, to await developments. Shortly 
after we got there Joe Ray said : "Lord, boys, we must 
have some whiskey to keep up our courage." Joe rode 
his horse out while we rode out in the ambulance, and 
Joe said to Smith: (By-the-way, Smith was a Swede just 
over from Sweden, and his English was not of the best:) 
^'You take this dollar and my horse and go to the hotel 
and get us a quart of whiskey." Smith said : "Me tank 
I not like to go all alone." So Joe said : "Oh, 
hell, go on." Smith started and soon returned, and as 
he was getting off of the horse in his awkward manner, 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 45 

he let the bottle of whiskey fall on the rocks and break. 
You bet Joe made the air blue cursing the poor Swede. 
About nine o'clock we were ordered back to town 
as our cavalry returned without any wounded for vis to 
take care of. On Monday, the 3rd, all the cavalry that 
was here was ordered out to reconnoiter and advise us of 
the movements of Price's army. Price's cavalry met our 
cavalry on the west side of Drywood and then occurred 
what was called the battle of Dry v/ood, I think there 
was in this battle a few wounded on each side and a few 
horses put out of the way .which v;ere about all the casual- 
ties. In the afternoon of said day word came that Price's 
whole army was coming tov.'ard Fort Scott and to get all 
the infantry and artillery that was here out on the hill 
east of tov/n. The artillery that Lane had was composed 
of three pieces, as different in size as an elephant and a 
pug dog. The cannon were in charge of some foreigners 
they had picked up as artillerymen, and there was about 
the same contrast in them as there was in the cannon. 
Lane that day ordered all citizens here to be mustered 
in fort service as an emergency service for the period of 
fourteen days. There -were some forty men, including 
Ben McDonald, Charley Drake and myself, who w^ere 
mustered into service, under command of Alex McDon- 
ald as captain. And by the way, McDonald, Drake and 
myself were never mustered out, so I suppose we are 
still in the service. After Lane had ordered all the 
troops but our company to the front, he ordered our 
com-pany to open amunition and load in wagons. After 
we had done this we were then ordered out on the hill 



46 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

with the balance of the troops. As we were marched 
out we met the cavalry returning from the battle of 
Drywood, they telling us that Price's army was coming 
and \Te would catch hell. It was about dark when our 
company reached the balance of the forces. V/e had not 
been there long until it was found that Price's army 
was not advancing, so Lane gave the order to counter- 
march to town. About this time there was a very heavy 
thunder and rain storm came up. That night after 
Lane held consultations with the colonels of different 
regiments he ordered a retreat of all the army to Fort 
Lincoln, excepting a cavalry company under Colonel 
Jewell, with instructions to Jewell to burn the town if 
Price's army came the next day. Colonel Jewell had 
fagots put in all the buildings so as to apply the torch 
when necessary. By the way, our company of fourteen 
daymen did not follow General Lane to Fort Lincoln, 
as we saw fit to act on our own hook. That Monday 
night Sam Williams, A, R Allison and myself left town 
about midnight to go north where Williams' family 
and some other persons were camped, about where the 
Catholic Cemetery now is. By the way, about all the 
women folks had left town, but Aunt Jane Smith and 
Mrs. Col. Wilson, We did not reach where Williams' 
people had camped until daylight, as it rained hard all 
night and we lay in a claim shanty about where Peter 
Kedinger's house now stands. In the morning after get- 
ting something to eat I told Williams and Allison I was 
going back to town. I did so, and they with their fami- 
lies and others went north and did not stop until they 



THE EAKLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 47 

reached Leavenworth. I met Alex McDonald in the 
morning when I returned. The town looked deserted 
and it was still raining very hard, and we expected 
Price's army at any time to come and burn the tovv'n. 
Jewell's cavalry kept a look out, but no army appeared. 
Tuesday and Wednesday night, McDonald, myself and 
others went out to a claim shanty on Joe Dillon's claim 
about two miles west of town. Thursday morning when 
we came to town Col. Jewell told us that he thought 
Price was breaking camp and moving north. As it had 
rained every day and night between Monday and 
Thursday it put the Drywood up so high that Price 
could not get his army across, and this is the reason 
Fort Scott was not burned at that time. 

Price failing to take Fort Scott as expected Gov. 
Jackson ordered his army north to attack Mulligan at 
Lexington. V/hen McDonald and I would come to 
town each morning we expected to see the town in 
ashes, but thanks to the heavy rains which kept Dry- 
wood so high, Fort Scott was saved from destruction by 
Price's army. A short time afterwards the main body 
of Lane's army came back to Fort Scott, but left a com- 
pany or two at Fort Lincoln to garrison it, until later 
on, when it was abandoned and the improvements 
moved to Fort Scott. 

There were some amusing incidents occurred dur- 
ing the raid by Price and the retreat of Lane's army. 
One was, my friend, Charley Drake, had tied his horse 
in the timber along the Marmaton to prepare himself 
to retreat before marching out bravely with our com- 



48 MKMOIKS A5D KECOLLFAJTIONS OF 

pany to battle, so when Lane ordered the retreat to 
Fort Lincoln, Drake, supposing that Price's army had 
come to take Port Scott, started to get his horse and 
ride north. It was very dark and he did not find his 
horse till daylight, after travelling around him all 
night, and when he did find the right place, some one 
had taken his horse and left an eld plug in his place, so 
Charley came back to town and took his chances with 
McDonald, myself and others. 

Prior to the Price raid on Fort Scott, General Lane 
had been running the army affairs in his own Vvay, but 
as I learned later, to my sorrow, he did not have legal 
authority from the government to employ me, as a bill 
of some $300 that was due to me for coffins I had 
made for the soldiers, I never received, the government 
claiming Lane had no authority to employ me. It was 
not long after the Price raid that the government had 
affairs reorganized here and made this a depot for sup- 
plies and established a regular quartermaster and com- 
missary here. Major Insley was made quartermaster 
and Carter Wilder was made commissary, and aftairs 
assumed a different aspect than when Lane was running 
affairs. Col. Doubleday, of the Second Ohio cavalry 
was first put in command of the post. I made many a 
coffin for the Second Ohio cavalry. They were a hard 
set and died off like sheep. They had been mustered in 
from the slums of Cleveland, The Sixth Kansas cav- 
alry was organized here with Col. Judson, and Lieut. 
Col. Jewell commanding. Col. Jewell was killed at 
the battle of Pea Ridge, Blair's battery was organized 



(V 




THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 4y 

here, with Ed. Smith captain. During the war Fort 
Scott was a refugee camp and also a camp for sick 
soldiers in this section, on sick leave. A great deal of 
this sickness was a hoax, as I worked as high as a dozen 
of these patients ai a time on carpenter work. 

Not long after Fort Scott was made a military depot 
the principal citizens and officers of the post became 
quite intimate, and there was no lack of social parties. 
I remember a masquerade ball held at Captain George 
Clark's house which was the great social event of that 
time. At this masquerade one Charlie Rubican imper- 
sonated Billie Barlow. He was not masked, but had 
his face and clothes arranged in such a way that he 
looked a perfect likeness of the vagabond Billie Barlow, 
and being a good singer he carried out the character by 
singing the song of Billie Barlow to such perfection 
that when he came for admission the door-keeper would 
not let him in, thinking he was a tramp. His most 
intimate friends did not know him, and he only got in 
after telling me who he Avas ; and I vouched for him. 
At this ball I impersonated the old Philadelphia Qua- 
ker, having had a drab suit made and well stuffed to 
give proportions, and long white hair and the regular 
broad brimmed hat. I made about a fac-simile figure 
of William Penn's statue on top of the city building in 
Philadelphia. There were a great many original cos- 
tumes and it was a big success for a frontier town. 

After the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln in 1861, 
David Manlove was appointed postmaster to succeed 
William Gallaher, who had served under Buchanan's 



50 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 



administration. Mr. Manlove only living a short time 
after he was appointed, his son, Sam, was appointed to 
succeed him. In 1862 I built the building for Sam for 
the use of the postoffice on the first floor, and the second 
floor Sam used for his batchelor quarters. This build- 
ing stood on the lot where Louis Klingbiel has his 
saloon today. Sam being one of the boys, a lot of us 
used to congregate at his room nightly and amuse our- 
selves. One night Sam said : "What can we do to have 
some fun?" (There were present Dave Emmert and two 
other musicians entertaining us with music.) I said : 
"Sam, I have a scheme for fun; I will take the Quaker 
suit that I wore to Clark's masquerade and put it on 
reversed, and you lead me around with the musicians 
following and introduce me as the back-sliding Qua- 
ker." As we visited different places the musicians would 
play and I would waltz to the music. In our round 
we visited Mrs. Alex. McDonald's house and performed 
in the parlor. Mrs. McDonald not knowing who I was, 
or knowing that the costume was on wrong side front, 
said: "Arn't you tired ? Please take a seat." I said: "I 
cannot;" which was the first she knew of the situation. 
We took in the town, especially the saloons, and wound 
up in the parlor of the Wilder house to the amusement 
of the army officers and other guests of the house. It 
was pronounced by the most critical, a masterpiece in 
the art of masquerading. 

In 1862 and 1863, there was a stockade and an earth 
fort built at the corner of National avenue and Second 
street, and at the corner of Second street and Scott ave- 



n 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 51 

nue. At this fort at Second and Scott avenue there was 
a block house built, the same that now stands on the 
rear end of the lot occupied by John Bearman's mat- 
tress factory. Uncle Billy Smith lived there at that 
time, and when the war was over he moved the block 
house to his lot for a stable. There was also a double 
block house built on the block northwest of the Plaza. 
There was a twenty-four pound cannon placed at each 
of these forts. In 1863 there was a fort and barracks 
ordered built on the high ground about a quarter of a 
mile east of the old property owned by Uncle Johnny 
Miller on the hill. The barracks were partly built when 
the work was ordered stopped. Jack McDonald, later, 
became owner of the property, but in a few years the 
unfinished buildings disappeared. From the time Fort 
Scott was made a military depot all was serene, and 
business and building prospered, and business was 
good all the time during the war. The spring of 1862, 
there was no hotel except the old Free State and Pro- 
Slavery hotels, and there was a demand for more hotel 
accommodation, George Dimon, that spring, decided 
to build a hotel; so he made brick where the old glass- 
works were, on the Peter Redinger farm, and commenced 
building the building that is now occupied by Horace 
Cohn, on the corner of Main and Wall streets, and 
named it the Wilder house, after Carter Wilder, who 
was the commissary. The house was opened early in 
1863 with a grand blow-out, and was a great resort for 
the army officers. I had about all the work I could 
attend to at this time. In the summer of 1863 I built 



52 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 



« 



the stone block across the street opposite the Wilder 
house for Dr. Miller, who at that time was south with 
the army. The same year I built the first church in 
Fort Scott for the Presbyterians— the same now occu- 
pied by Moody's Marble yard. Up to this time the 
lumber used for building was native, such as walnut, 
oak, sycamore, elm, and so forth. When I got the con- 
tract for the Miller block and Presbyterian church, I 
found I must have some pine lumber, so I commenced 
hauling pine lumber from Leavenworth. I paid as 
high as $100 per thousand for the lumber at Leaven- 
worth and $60 a thousand for freighting it down here, 
making it cost me $160 per thousand. I would sell it at 
$200 a thousand, as I had to make my regular profit of 
twenty-five per cent. 

About this time the first gift enterprise came to 
town and was held in Uncle Johnny Miller's store. The 
man had his prizes in a large show case on the counter 
on one side of the store. A few days after the man was 
running his scheme some of the boys complained that 
it was a gouge game. Doc. Van Pelt, Burns Gordon and 
myself, being together and having some fun, on hear- 
ing this report about the gift enterprise, concluded 
we would go in and try our luck. Van Pelt caught the 
man at his tricks and got mad, and, notwithstanding 
our combined efforts to prevent him, we could not keep 
him from getting up and walking through the show 
case, which he did, and broke up the gift enterprise. 
We all three were arrested by Deacon Jones, who was 
marshal at that time, and we each paid him $10 for our 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 53 

appearance before the recorder, but we never appeared. 
Besides this it cost us $100 we had to pay the gift enter- 
prise man, and he left town with his wrecked case of 
prizes, and said the town was too hot a place for him ; 
so, in total, we were out $130.00 for our fun ; but money 
was no object in those days, as-fun we would have with- 
out counting the cost. 

The same year, 1863, I built the City Hall, which 
cost $4,500. The same was raised by personal subscrip- 
tion. This hall was used a few years for that purpose, 
and then was offered to the county as a court house 
free for a number of years. They then removed the 
county seat here, which was at that time located at 
Marmaton, seven miles west. This offer brought the 
county seat here and continued it here permanently. 
The city sold the hall eventually to the county and it 
was used for court house purposes until the present 
court house was built. The building was built of stone, 
was condemned a few years ago and torn down. This 
building was on the lot on the corner of Second and Na- 
tional avenue, where the fire tower now stands, and is 
now owned by the city with the prospect of building a 
city hall in the future. The first story was used by the 
city officers, the second story was all in a hall, which 
was used for public meetings and exhibitions of all 
kinds. In the early spring of 1865, just before the close 
of the war, one of the greatest shows on earth was held 
in this hall. Like all towns the church people were 
hard up, and were giving entertainments of some kind 
to raise money. The Episcopal and Catholic churches 



54 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

would have dances to raise money; the Methodists, 
socials and parties, so about this time the Presbyterian 
people decided they must raise some money, but they 
did not want a dancing party and hardly knew what 
they did want. J. R. Morley, in those days, was the 
leader of amusements, and had prior to this time put 
on the boards some very fair amateur performances 
with the material there was on hand at that time; so 
some of the ladies, Mrs. Aunt Jane Smith, Mrs. Redfield, 
Mrs. Jewell and Barney Eberhardt, talked to Mr. Morley 
on the question, "Well," he said : "What do you want?" 
"Well, we don't want any dance, but something differ- 
ent, that has a moral influence." If I am not mistaken 
Morley was never a Bob IngersoU or a Beecher, but 
agreed to help the church out, so the ladies gave him 
carte blanche to get up a performance. Mr. Morley 
came to me and said: "Charley, Aunt Jane Smith and 
the balance of the blue stocking women want an enter- 
tainment, and if you will join with me we will see if we 
can't get them up something they won't forget." So 
Morley and I went to work and decided to have a com- 
bination show — the first part to be a circus and menag- 
erie, — the second part a minstrel and vaudeville, and 
the after piece a railroad wreck or tragedy. So Morley 
and I were about ten days making the property for the 
show, consisting of lion heads, banners, elephant's 
trunks, imitations of horses, and so forth. The lion 
head was a huge affair, made of wire and covered with 
buffalo skin. Then we picked out all the star perform- 
ers of the day to help us put the play on the stage. The 



THE EAHLY DAYS OF FORI SCOTT. 55 

following were the artists of that memorable perform- 
ance: J. R. Morley, ringmaster; C. W. Goodlander, 
clown and lion imitator ; Mark Shafifenburg (Van Am- 
berg) the lion tamer; Jack White, bare-back rider; Ken 
Williams, acrobat, and then in the minstrel and vaude- 
ville were Dave Emmert, vocalist and fat boy; Ken 
Williams, ballet dancer; Ben McDonald, (by-the-way, 
Ben made the ugliest darkey I ever saw,) Charley Clark, 
negro comedians— in the play of "Stocks Up and Stocks 
Down." In the railroad wreck George Clark was con- 
ductor, and the passengers were composed of some of our 
prominent citizens, dressed as Dutch, Irish, Italian, and 
so forth, and negroes and market women ; and a motley 
crew it was. I well remember George A. Crawford rep- 
resented an old country woman with a squalling baby 
in her arms ; Joe Ray was peanut boy ; George Clark 
had prepared the explosion of the engine, and when 
the wreck occurred everybody thought the house would 
fall. 

This closed the show, and it was pronounced a 
grand success. But when all was over the Presbyterian 
women said to Morley and I : "Well, boys, you did 
give us a show, but it was hardly up to church morals ; 
but we can forgive you for the $700 you put into our 
treasury, raised without giving a dance, that has cor- 
rupt influence on the young." Tliis show was held about 
the time the rebellion was at an end, and the town was 
full of officers and they gave liberally, and everybody 
felt good, over the prospect of the war coming to 
a close. General Blunt and several other leadhig offi- 



56 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

cera were present. Jack White and Dave Emmert 
formed the elephant, and during the performance we 
had a boy carrying beer by the bucket full and drew it 
up through a window in the dressing room, and some 
of the performers got quite full, and especially Jack and 
Dave, the elephant men, so when they went on in the 
elephant act, I, then acting as clown, observed that 
they were pretty shaky, and I looked for something 
that was not on the bill. When the elephant appeared 
I introduced the animal by the name of General Blunt. 
Ringmaster Morley said : "Why do you call him Blunt?" 
I said : "Because he is a good drinker." This brought 
the house down, as all knew Blunt's failing. Ken Wil- 
liams rode the elephant in regular Hindoo custom. 
Directly I saw that the animal was getting shaky and 
knew it would come to pieces. I said : "Ringmaster, 
why is the elephant like the Southern Confederacy at 
the present time?" "I give it up," said Ringmaster 
Morley. I said: "Because it is falling to pieces." Just 
then Jack and Dave commenced falling on the floor, 
and the elephant collapsed admidst the roar of the 
audience. I had covered the hoops, for banners, for the 
bare back riders to jump through. The cover was made 
out of the New York Observer, the leading Presbyterian 
paper of the age, and I would hold them out in plain 
view to the deacons and deaconesses of the church to 
see. When I took the part of the lion I had a tight 
fitting clown suit on, with a huge tail attached and a 
lion's head over my head, Shafifenburg would put his 
head in my mouth, and I would growl and he would 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 57 

feed me on old shoes and boots, and with all his caress- 
ing and feeding, I got mad and drove him off of the 
stage. When the show was over the actors adjourned 
down town for refreshments, and made a night of it. 
We considered this our farewell performance. During 
the year of '65 the McDonald Hall block was built south 
of the Wilder house, the same building now occupied 
by the Citizen's National bank and other business 
houses. The upper floor of that building was one large 
hall, with a stage in one end of it. After this all shows, 
both amateur and professional, were held in this hall 
up to the time the opera house was built. 

The following program, (a fac-simile,) which is now 
in the possession of my wife, is a sample of one of the 
shows John R. Morley used to produce in this hall : 



GRAND ENTERTAINMENT. 



Singing, Pantomime & Tableaux, 

by 

Fort Scott Amateurs, 

at 

McDonald's Halll, 

Tuesday Evening, Sept. 10th, 1869. 



Directors de I'Orchestre Chas. Lamar 

Organist B. F. Shurat 

Hussiers d'Assemblee Messrs. Allison, Annable, 

Higbee and Bayliss 
Maitre d'Assemblee Dr. G. R. Baldwin 

PROGRAMME. 

Part First. 

Quartette Mr. and Mrs.McKinnie, Mrs. Insley and 

Mr. Schneider 



MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Scriptural Drama— Queen Athalia. 

Repeated by request of the Citizens. 

In four acts. 

Queen Athalia _ Miss Blanch Haynes 

Jaodo, High Priest Miss Ella Terry 

Josabet, Princess Miss N, Gannet 

Abner, Officer of Judah Mr. J. W. Strong 

Mathan, an Apostate Priest Mr. J. W. Cormany 

Nabal, Adviser of Athalia Mr. J. Morley 

Joas, Young King of Judah George Kearns 

Ismeal, Priest Mr. D. Havens 

Zacherie, Son of Josabet Miss L. Strong 

Solomith, Zacherie's Sister Miss M. Post 

Agar, Attendant on Queen Miss L. Stevens 

Second Attendant on Queen Miss E. Abeel 

Two Levites— Choir of Temple Children— Scene in the 

Court of Solomon's Temple. 

Interlude. 

Song Mr. and Mrs. McKinnie 



Part Second. 

The laughable and amusing. French Pantomime 

BOITE DE MAGIQUE ! 

Pantalon Charlie Goodlander 

The popular and well known pantomimist, late 
of the "Joss Troupe." 

Chief du Drama W. A. Cormany 

The Unrivalled Artist. 
Personne's de La Suite... .B. P. McDonald & G. A. Scoville 

The Versatile Actors. 

This laughable Pantomime will be presented in a style 

that is unrivalled by anything ever enacted 

by the famous Raeel Troupe. 

Quartette— Mr. and Mrs. McKinnie, Mrs. Insley and 

Mr. Schneider. 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 59- 

This entertainment will conclude with a grand and daz- 
zling Tableau of Statuary and Statues, 
arranged by Miss McComas and 
Miss E. Wilson. 

Admission 50 cents | Children 25 cents 

Reserved Seats, 75 Cents. 

Tickets for sale at Cottrell's, at the Wilder House. 

Doors open at 7 o'clock— Entertainment commences at 8- 



The first bank established in Fort Scott was in the 
fall of 1862. I was with Alex. McDonald in Chicago in 
January, 1863, when he bought a safe for his bank. I 
think this was the first safe brought to Fort Scott. It 
was all cast iron. The same safe stands in my lumber 
office today. John Dillon was cashier of the bank. The 
The bank w^as in the rear end of McDonald's store, on 
the corner of the alley and Wall street. One night JohrL 
was sitting in the bank with Tom Bridgens, city attor- 
ney, and John G. Stewart, Jack White, Sam Manlove 
and myself had been in Julius Neubauer's saloon, just 
across the alley, and being in good condition for fun, 
we saw Dillon in the bank, and at the same time seeing 
a lot of empty salt barrels in the alley, we concluded to 
play a trick on McDonald's cashier. We piled the salt 
barrels up against the door, so that when he opened the 
door they would fall in on him. Our scheme worked all 
right, but we had not concluded on the legal adviser 
that was in John's company, when lo, and behold, the 
next morning we w^ere all arrested for attempting the 
life of Cashier Dillon. 'Squire Margrave at that time 
was city recorder, and we were all marched up to the 



€0 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

office by the marshal, followed by quite a number of 
people. Tom Bridgens, city attorney, presented the 
case. He had trumped up some witnesses for his side 
and had. made a strong case against us . Jack White 
said : "Boys, we have no lawyer to plead our case." "Oh, 
pshaw," said Sam Manlove ; "No use going to that ex- 
pense; I am as much of a lawyer as Tom Bridgens is, 
and I will plead our case and save a lawyer's fee." After 
the prosecuting attorney had finished his side of the 
case, Sam got up and made a great plea, and said affairs 
had got to a great state in this town if the boys could 
not have a little fun without being arrested, and he did 
not see that Cashier Dillon's life w^as in any danger by 
the weight of empty salt barrels falling on him, and 
the whole proceedings was trumped up by Attorney 
Bridgens just to show his authority. After Sam had 
got through with his plea he said to Judge Margrave : 
"You was a boy one time, and you know how it is on 
the frontier, as you have spent all your life here ; I sub- 
mit our case to your honor, and our defense is a good 
one and you knov/ it." The judge smole one of those 
quiet smiles of his, and said : "Boys, I am sorry that in- 
stead of being home in bed you have been making owls 
of yourselves ; a complaint for attempting a fellow citi- 
zen's life is a serious affair ; and as I want to be as easy 
as I can, I will only give you the minimum fine I can 
impose, ^5.00 and costs apiece, making the amount of 
fine $7.50. We each had to fork over. We kicked, but 
it done no good. "Pay, or go to the lock-up," 'said the 
judge; so the lark that night cost us each the court 



THE EARLY DAY8 OF FORT SCOTT. 61 

fine, besides the amount it took to get us in condition 
to attempt a fellow-citizen's life, and in those days that 
material was not very cheap. We tried later on to get 
even with Dillon, by having him arrested for carrying 
concealed w^eapons, but did not succeed, as his attorney, 
Bridgens, warned him of the danger of being arrested 
by us if he did so, so he told Dillon to keep his pistol in 
sight until we got over being mad. 

In 1862 was about the first advent of the drummer 
or commercial traveller visiting Fort Scott, and in those 
days, as they are now, they were hale fellows well met, 
and the boys here were always ready to entertain them 
and give them the best the town afforded. They most 
always left the town the worse for wear and loss of sleep 
and funds. One day a drummer came who was quite 
fresh, and he made the remark that he understood we 
boys got away with all the drummers that came to Fort 
Scott, and that he was going to hold up the reputation 
of the fraternity, and said he was able to take care of 
No. 1. Well, this remark was enough for the boys to 
take him in charge and deal out to him the best the 
town afforded. By midnight he became so beastly 
full that we decided the best place for him was in the 
stable ; so we took him to the stage barn, he being in 
such condition that he did not know the difference be- 
tween a bed of straw in a stall with a halter around 
his neck, and a feather bed with his wife's arms around 
his neck. The next morning some of the boys went to 
look after our travelling friend of the night before, 
and lo, and behold, he was gone. The stage left early 



62 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 



in the morning, and he had got up early enough 
-catch the first stage and leave town without bidding us 
good-bye. He never returned to my knowledge. 

Fort Scott had the reputation in those days of en- 
tertaining strangers the best they knew how, and I 
don't think it has lost its prestige in that line up to the 
present day. 

In 1860, the first wagon scales or hay scales put up 
in Fort Scott was owned by Joe Ray and Jack White 
jointly, and was built in the street at the junction of 
Main and Market, in front of where Rodecker's store 
now is. Joe and Jack's place of business was just oppo- 
site on Market street, and they alternately attended to 
the weighing, and the money they took in for weighing 
they deposited in the beam-box, where they kept a bot- 
tle of whiskey ; so every time they weighed a wagon 
they deposited the proceeds in the beam-box and took 
a drink. When the bottle was empty, they took their 
money on hand and replenished it. Joe used to say, 
*'That is the only way to run a saloon ; no one can dead- 
beat you for a drink. 

In 1862 Jack White established the first hard wood 
lumber yard here. Joe used to joke Jack a good deal 
about his lumber. As any one knows, native lumber, 
especially elm, is more or less of a warpy nature. Joe 
used to say that Jack had to have a tight board fence to 
keep his lumber from crawling out of the yard and that 
his lumber was so crooked he had to measure it with a 
cork-screw, and that his lumber yard was like a saloon, 
had to use a cork-screw to dispose of liis goods. Joe 



to I 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 63 

would make the remark every time that he entered 
Jack's yard, that he thought he had snakes as the lum- 
ber was crawling so much. Joe was a rabid democrat 
and Jack was a rabid republican, and many a quarrel 
they would have over politics, but they would wind up 
with a compromise by going to the scale beam box and 
taking a drink. Joe was a great coward, and the boys 
were all the time playing a great many tricks on him, 
such as putting terrapins in his bed, coons in his room, 
and all kinds of tricks. 

George Stockmeyer, about this time, as he does 
now, in Fort Scott, sold vegetables and berries, and 
would go barefooted as a sign of fair weather, as he was 
always more or less of a weather prophet— as he is now- 
So when the boys saw Stockmeyer barefooted they con- 
cluded it was a good time for out-door exercises. One 
day he came to town with his old horse and sulky and 
had on a lot of gooseberries for sale. A lot of the boys, 
who were out having a good time, tackled Stockmeyer 
and his rig and undertook to take him, horse, sulky and 
all, into Julius Neubauer's saloon, but as they could not 
get the sulky through the door they unhitched the 
horse and took him into the saloon. The boys gave the 
basket of gooseberries to Julius and told him to make a 
gooseberry punch for the crowd, including Stockmeyer 
and his horse. After the punch was made they poured 
a couple of glasses down the horse's throat and then all 
drank a toast to Stockmeyer and his horse. After the 
proceedings were over they hitched the horse to the 
sulky and put Stockmeyer aboard, and having paid him 



64 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

for his berries, he drove off happy that he had made so 
good a sale. 

In the summer of 1863, the first Italian musicians 
made their appearance on the streets of Fort Scott — 
another sign of civilization from the far east. There 
was a harpist, violinist, flute and piccolo players, and 
they made the best music we had heard in Fort Scott, 
and the boys feeling good over hearing the music con- 
cluded they would use this band and have some fun. 
George Clark said : "Charley what shall we do, and have 
this band play for us?" Now for a year or two Roach 
had kept a pet bear chained in the yard of his house, 
and we used to have considerable fun playing with the 
bear. I said: "Clark, let's have a bear parade;" so it 
was decided that Clark should act as manager, I to be 
bear tamer and perform'er, Tom Corbett to lead the bear 
while marching. Ken Williams, acrobat and cannon ball 
tosser, Bill Norway, big Indian. We were all dressed 
in costume to suit our part of the performance. The 
bear was no cub, — he weighed over 200 pounds. After 
getting the Italian band and the performers together 
we went up and asked Roach for the use of his bear. 
He granted the request on promise of safe return. 
About the time we were ready to start there was a great 
crowd ready to follow, so Clark gave the command to 
march, and ordered all followers to fall into line. I led 
the procession looking like a matador at a bull fight; 
Tom Corbett next, leading the bear, then Ken Williams 
and Bill Norway, then the Italian band, with the pro- 
cession of citizens behind; we made quite an imposing 






' ■ .xm s 



'K 



taa*' 



^^^mm 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 65 

appearance. The idea was to march to different points 
of interest, especially saloons, and there give a perform- 
ance at each of these places to the music of the band. I 
would waltz and wrestle with the bear to the tune of 
the music, then Williams and Norway would go through 
with their specialties, and Clark, while the show was 
going on, would dilate on the virtues of his show and 
the great expense he had been to, to import it from 
sunny Italy. After each performance the party we 
visited would set up refreshments— mostly in liquid 
form. We first went to the Wilder House, next to the 
different saloons and the officers' headquarters. Mr. 
Bear all this time appeared to like the fun as well as 
the boys. After winding up at the officers' quarters I 
said : "Clark, take us out to John R. Morley's house and 
give a performance there." Clark said : "What do you 
want to go there for? There are no liquid refresh- 
ments." I answered Clark and told him there were two 
young ladies, tenderfeet, from Ohio, visiting Mr. Mor- 
ley, and Jack White and John Dillon are sweet on them, 
and the two boys are out there now, and I think it best 
to give the girls a taste of frontier amusement. We 
marched up to Morley's house— he lived then in the 
house that Henry Neubauer resides in now. The Morley 
household hearing the music coming were all out on 
the veranda; we marched into the yard in good order, 
George Clark introducing us in grand style. Norway 
led off with the Indian dance, Ken Williams with his 
performance, leaving me for the great finale. Mr. Bear 
was in great trim, and I think Mr. Bear, like myself 



66 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF ^^ 

wanted to show off to the eastern girls, and we entered 
into our performance with great gusto. First, we 
waltzed around and around and courtesied to the ladies 
and then we went to wrestling and tumbling on the 
ground. About this time, unknown to the audience, 
Mr, Bear sank his teeth through my boot into the calf 
of my leg; but paying no attention to the bite, I 
finished up the performance, and then remarked: 
"Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Bear has given me infor- 
mation that he is tired of this damned show, and I 
think we will now retire." I said to Tom Corbett, "You 
lead the bear back to Old Roach," and to Clark and 
the other performers, "Go with me to Doc. Redfield's." 
"What for?" they said; and I said: "My boot is full of 
blood, and my leg is sore where the bear bit me." This 
was the first intimation they had that I was hurt. 
This ended the memorable bear show and parade, which 
was the talk of the town for a long while. 

By the end of the war Fort Scott had become a town 
of some 3000 inhabitants, and all kinds of business was 
good, and from the time it was made a regular military 
depot until the fall of 1864 the troops that were here did 
not have much to do except routine duty at the fort. 
There was very little war excitement except a raid now 
and then that did not amount to much, except the raid 
at Marmaton by guerillas from the Indian country, 
which was a bad one, as they killed several inhabitants 
of that town and escaped south after doing all the devil- 
try they could. This was about all the war excitement 
until the fall of 1864, which was called the second Price 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 



67 



raid on Fort Scott. During the occupation of Fort 
Scott as a military post and depot it was commanded, 
as near as I can remember, by Col. Doubleday, Major 
Henning, and our old townsman, General Blair, who by 
the way, at the battle of Wilson Creek, Mo., took com- 
mand after the death of General Lyon, and the wound- 
ing of General Dietzler and Mitchell, and showed him- 
self equal to the occasion, just as if he had been an 
old regular. Gen. Price, in the fall of 1864, marched his 
army north to the Missouri River in the eastern part of 
Missouri, and then west on the side of the Missouri river 
to the western border of Missouri. When he reached 
the Blue river in Jackson County, he marched his army 
south along the border, being followed by the Union 
forces under Gen. Pleasanton. Pleasanton's command 
overtook him in Linn County, near where the town of 
Pleasanton now stands, and there occurred the battle of 
Mine Creek. Price's army was routed and a large num- 
ber of prisoners taken, including several officers, and 
one complete battery of artillery. The prisoners, both 
officers and privates were brought to Fort Scott, also the 
captured artillery. I remember distinctly seeing the 
officers under guard standing at the corner of the Wil- 
der house, now Horace Cohn's store. Among them was 
Gen. Gable, Gen. Marmaduke, and one Gen. Chester. 
In later years this same Gen, Marmaduke was elected 
governor of Missouri, and Cable I met afterwards in Dal- 
las, Texas, of which city he was then mayor. The pri- 
vates were put in the block house and stockade which I 
previously mentioned as being moved from Fort Lin- 



08 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

coin, and the officers were placed under guard at the Wil- 
der House and held a few days, when all, both officers 
and privates, were paroled. After the capture of a part of 
Price's army at Mine Creek the remaining army moved 
on south with the intention of taking Fort Scott in the 
retreat, but they were followed so closely by the Union 
Army that when they got on the hill where the Shinn 
farm is now located they could see with a field glass that 
the only ford leading into Fort Scott was well protected 
with artillery placed on the bluff north-east of the Plaza 
and if they undertook to force the ford with the Union 
Army in their rear, they stood a good show of being 
captured ; so they moved east on the north side of the 
Marmaton and crossed a ford some ten miles east in Mis- 
souri, and moved south and escaped. That night Pleas- 
anton's army came into Fort Scott about worn out and 
went into camp after a week's steady march. After a 
week or so Pleasanton's command was distributed to 
other points, and affairs in Fort Scott settled down to 
the regular routine, and business revived, as this move 
of Price's was supposed to be about the last demonstra- 
tion in this section. The morning that the battery of 
artillery was brought here there was quite a little sensa- 
tion occurred. The artillery was standing in Wall 
street and one piece that stood opposite the rear end of 
the opera house was in a depressed position the same as 
when being transported ; the street was full of people, 
but just in front of the cannon there was a space of 
Bome fifty feet where there happened to be no one. I 
was standing just opposite the cannon on the sidewalk. 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. Otf 

when I heard a smart aleck say, "I will show you how 
they fire off a cannon." He took an artillery match 
from his pocket and placed it in the touch hole and 
pulled the string, when lo, and behold a loud report. 
The cannon had been captured with a load in it and no 
one knew any better. One fellow had his head pretty 
close to the muzzle of the gun and had his hair and 
eyebrows terribly scorched. The cannon was loaded 
with a time shell, and when it struck the ground it re- 
bounded and went through the top of a house that 
stood where the Goodlander Hotel now stands, and ex- 
ploded on the roof of the house now occupied by Henry 
Neubauer. There was no more fooling with the cap- 
tured artillery after that. The town of Pleasanton, 
Linn County, was named after Gen. Pleasanton. In the 
spring of 1865, as we all know, the war closed, and the 
troops that were here were mustered out or moved away 
and a great many supposed the town would go back- 
wards after the removal of the support derived from the 
military depot. For some months it did look that way, 
but by the fall of 1865 the town commenced to forge 
ahead, and by the time the Kansas City & Fort Scott 
railroad reached here the 7th day of December, 1869, 
it was a town of some 4500 inhabitants. 

In front of the Wilder House there were posts and a 
rail on top to tie horses to. This rail was quite broad 
and made a good seat, so late at night the boys used to 
sit on this rail telling yarns, not wanting to go to bed. 
One night along in 1867, Jack White, Billy Robinson 
and myself, were sitting there about half asleep, and 



70 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Jack White roused up and with great energy said : 
"Boys, let's all three get married and go to Baxter 
Springs on a wedding tour." Now, Jack was sweet on 
Kate Stewart, and had clear sailing. Billy Robinson 
spoke up and said : "Jack, it is well enough for you to pro- 
pose marrying, as you have a cinch on your girl, while 
Charlie and I have not." Col. Wilson had three daugh- 
ters — Jennie, Lizzie and Fannie. Billy was sweet on 
Fannie, and I was making faces at Lizzie, and Jennie 
had married Joe Ray. Billy and I did not make much 
headway, as a certain party was in the way of Billy, 
and a certain lieutenant in the army was sweet on 
Lizzie. Jack married Kate that year, and Billy, some 
three years later married Jennie, the widow of Joe Ray, 
he having died in 1869, and Jack White died the same 
year ; so these two croneys passed away. As Billy failed 
to make a go with Fannie he was bound to get into the 
family. I later on married Lizzie, and Fannie later on 
married T. F. Robley. These Wilson girls, I think, were 
among the first few white children born in Kansas 
fifty years ago. Lizzie and Fannie are living now. but 
Jennie died some three years ago. 

After the war, in the summer of 1865, 1 commenced 
to haul white pine lumber from Kansas City until the 
railroad got here, then bought from Latshaw & Quaide, 
who had a lumber yard on the corner of Fifth and 
Delaware, where the Armour Bank building now 
stands. I continued this until the Gulf road got to Fa- 
cia, and then hauled from there, and later on when the 
road got to Pleasanton I hauled from that point. 1 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 71 

bought the white pine himber from Kansas City parties 
until the railroad got to Pleasanton, and that summer 
the Hannibal bridge was finished at Kansas City, and I 
bought my lumber in Hannibal and had it shipped to 
Pleasanton. The first purchase I made in Hannibal 
was from Rowe & Toll— ten car loads. A few weeks 
later one Davis, of Davis, Bokee & Garth, lumber deal- 
ers, of Hannibal, came along, and I bought a train load 
of thirty-six cars from that firm. I don't think to this 
day Brother Toll ever forgave me, as he claimed he had 
found and pre-empted me, and I was his meat. This 
same Toll is now at the head of the Badger Lumber 
company, Kansas City. 

On the 7th day of December, 1869, the Missouri River, 
Fort Scott & Gulf R. R., now known as the Kansas City, 
Fort Scott & Memphis R. R., reached this point, and the 
days of hauling lumber by wagon was at an end. The 
first car of freight that came by rail to Fort Scott was a 
car of lath shipped to me for the old Gulf house, and I 
unloaded it while the engine was switching the train 
so it was scattered a quarter of a mile along the track. 

The first county fair held in Fort Scott was held 
in the stockade fort at the corner of National avenue 
and Second street, in the fall of 1865, and the second 
fair was held in the fall of 1866, in the government 
corral enclosure that had been built by the quarter- 
master's department during the war, about in the 
locality of the present Presbyterian church. There 
was quite a large enclosure and there was room for a 
short race track, but at the time this fair was held the 



72 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

grasshoppers were so thick on the track that they could 
have no races. That fall there was a story in Kansas 
that the grasshoppers stopped a railroad train, whether 
this is true or not, I must say that they did stop the 
horse races as they were from one to three inches deep 
on the track and plenty to spare. 

In 1867 the first settlers of Fort Scott decided to 
have a blow-out. The following is a fac-simile of the 
bill of fare of the supper they had, the original having 
been preserved by my wife and is now in her possesion. 



1857 1867 

PIONEER SUPPER. 

Wilder House. 

Fort Scott, Kansas, Nov, 14, 1867. 



BILL OF FARE. 

Twelve O'clock Supper. 

Soup. 

Oyster. Colbert. 

Fish. 
Baked Black Bass. Broiled Red-horse. 

Relieve. 
Broiled Leg of Mutton, Caper sauce ; Wild Turkey, 
Braised with Oysters, Ham, Champagne sauce ; 
Broiled Prairie Chicken, parsley Sauce ; Rib of 
Antelope, a la Regeance ; Buffalo Tongue. 
Cold Ornamental Dishes. 
Chaudfroid of Paisant, a la Parisienne. 
Pattress de foie Gras, with jelly. 
Bastion of Rabbits, a la Shiloh, 
Bear Tongue, a la Carlotta, 

Boned Turkey, decorated with jelly. 
Boned Partridge, a la Pawnee, 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT, 



73 



Brandt, ornamented with jelly, 

Sunfish au Beurre, de Montpelier. 
Entries. 
Rissoles of Jack Snipe, a la Pompadour. 
Fillet of Curlew, a la Rouenaise, 
Civit of Venison, with Port wine. 
Fillet of Wild Goose, a la Marmaton, 
Fillet of Teal Duck, a la Drywood, 
Fillet of Plover, a la Prairie, 
White Crane Salad, a 1 ' Osage, 
Woodcock Fricasee, a la Wolverine. 

Entries Continued. 
Noix of Fawn, a la Balltown, 
Coon chops, a la Marias des Cygnes, 
Sweet-bread, a la Toulouse. 
Roasts. 
Wild Turkey, Killdeer, 

Saddle Venison, Gray Squirrel, 
Fox Squirrel, Sage Hen, 

Wood Duck, Crane, 

Red-head Duck, Black Bear, 
Canvas-back Duck, Gray Duck, 
Opossum with Persimmon Jelly, 
Butter-ball Duck. 
Pastry. 

Cocoanut Pyramid, 
Cantelope rum sauce, 
Strawberry Ice Cream, 
Champagne Jelly, 
Pretzels, 
Horn of Plenty. 
Dessert. 



Beef, 

Buffalo, 

Gray Duck 

Goose, 

Mallard, 

Brandt, 



Persimmon Pyramid 
American Desert, 
Mince Pie, 
Dewberry Jelly, 
Pumpkin Pie, 
Paw-Paw Pies, 



Wild Fox Grapes, 
Black Walnuts, 
Hazle Nuts, 

Butter Nuts. 



74 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Bush Cherries, 
Paw Paws, 
Pecans, 
Apples, 
Coffee. 

Wine List. 
Champagne. 
Robinson & Co.'s Dry Verzenay. 
.T. Sattler & Co.'s Green Sea Imperial, 
C. H. Haynes' Royal Rose. 
Van Fossen Bros' Gold Seal. 
Linn & Stadden's Sillery Mouseaux, 
A. McDonald & Bro's Monopale. 
J. S. Redfield & Co.'s Dry Sillery. 
Dr. J. H. Couch's Veizenay. 
Dr. B. F. Hepler's Cabinet. 
J. 8. Redfied & Co.'s Imperial. 

Claret, 
Table, Medoc, Floirac, (D. Marie & Freres and 
Brandenburg, Freres), St. J ulien. Chateau, Leoville, 
(first quality) Chateau Margux, Chateau Yquem, 
Chateau, Lafitte, Chateau Griscoms. 

California Wine. 
Angelica, Los Angelos Vintage, 
California Port, Muscatel and Hock. 
Kansas Wine, 
Southern Kansas Wine Co. 
Imperial, W. T. Campbell's vintage. 
Sparkling Catawba, Spring River Vinyard. 
H. B. Hart's Seedling "Bergunday." 
Still Catawba, (very still, no noise.) 

Ale and Porter. 
Hack's Imported (Leavenworth) Ale. 
Newberry's London Porter. 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 75 

Staging in the early days of Fort Scott to Kansas 
City was quite a trip to make. When roads were good 
the trip was made in twenty-four hours, but there 
being no bridges in those days across the streams, 
when rainy seasons came on it was uncertain when you 
would get through. The last trip I made on the stage 
to Kansas City was in the summer of 1868, when the 
Kansas City railroad was built no farther south than 
Olathe. George A. Crawford was my travelling com- 
panion, and as the weather was very wet we expected it 
would take us several days to get through. In those 
days, when going on a trip, we always needed some 
medicine in case of accident or snake bite. I prepared 
myself a small demijohn of whiskey, and Crawford, not 
needing as strong a drink, put up a half dozen bottles 
of wine. The roads were bad and the rivers high. The 
first day we got to a station in Linn county, the next 
day to Osawatomie, and laid up there one day on 
account of high water. The medical supplies ran out 
there and we had to lay in a new supply. On the fourth 
day after leaving Fort Scott we reached Olathe at 
night, and stopped at old man Laithe's hotel, having 
been acquainted with the old man in Fort Scott, we 
were glad to see him ; he was so glad to see us he said 
he would treat, if he had any liquor, and I said : 
"Laithe, you furnish the water and sugar, and I guess 
there is enough left in this demijohn to furnish the bal- 
ance. I brought out my medicine chest and I found 
there was enough for three good mix-ups, and we 
had a jovial time and felt happy because we had arrived 



76 MEMOIRS AND KECOLLECTIONS OF 

at the end of our stage ride. The next morning we went 
into Kansas City on the railroad. My demijohn being 
«mpty I had tied it to my satchel. At that time there 
was no depot at Kansas City. An old house that stood 
about where the depot now is, was used for that pur- 
pose. We took a 'bus for the Pacific house, on the cor- 
ner of Delaware and Fourth streets, the leading house 
at that time in Kansas City. After resting I asked for 
my baggage, and it was missing. Col. Smith, who kept 
the house at that time, said to the 'bus man : "You had 
better look up the gent's baggage." Directly the man 
came back with my satchel, and as he walked through 
the office of the hotel he hallooed out : "Here is a satchel 
and it must be yours, because it has got the Fort Scott 
card tied to it." The joke was so good that I had to set 
up the drinks for the crowd. 

In the year 1867, I planned and built the court 
house at Nevada. The same year Charley Drake and I 
jointly built the business house on the site where his 
bank building now stands. The building cost some 
$16,000. I took charge and built the house and furnished 
some material, and Charley furnished some also, and 
each kept a debtor and credit account, and when we 
came to settle up, after the building was finished, Char- 
ley owed me a difference of $25.00. I think he always 
thought 1 got the best of him. The timber in this 
building was hauled from Osage Mission.and was cotton- 
wood. This building caught fire and burned down in 
1876, one Sunday night when Drake and I were at 
church. Up to 1870, I built about three-fourths of all 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORI SCOTT. 77 

the buildings built in Fort Scott. The Gulf house, now 
extinct, was built late in 1869, and opened a month 
after the Gulf road got here. From the year 1866 to 
1870, I worked some fifty men in my building business, 
attending to my men during the day and my figuring 
and bookkeeping and fun with the boys at night, and 
I was generally the last man seen at night and the first 
in the morning. 

The M., K. & T. railroad was built in here on De- 
cember 7th, 1870. Just one year to a day after the Gulf. 
At the time of the change of our town from a stage and 
ox-team to a railroad town some of us boys, though 
rather old boys by this time, concluded we must have a 
club-house to entertain new-comers; so A. McAllister^ 
H. S. Curry, B. E. Langdon, T. F. Robley, Tom Linn, Al. 
Campbell and myself organized a club and called it the 
"Joss Club." We entertained quite a number of men of 
note in Kansas of that date. Among them the Rev- 
Kallock Rossington, Editor Prouty, Sheriff Lowe, and a 
number of others. We used to have any amount of 
amusement, and entertained in royal style. At this 
time a brother of mine from lllinoie made his first visit 
to Fort Scott, and I said: "Boys, we must treat him 
royally." Among one of our amusements now and 
then, I used to give the Indian dance. Now my brother 
wore a wig, and none of the "Joss" boys knew it, so after 
we had passed the flowing bowl of refreshments, the 
boys said: "Charley, you must show your eastern 
brother the war dance." My brother was seated in the 
center of the room and the boys seated around the wall, 



78 MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF 

80. after rolling up my pants and putting a red blanket 
over my shoulders, and the handle of a feather duster 
down the back of my neck to make a plume, my face 
being reddened by the refreshments we had had, I 
looked a complete Indian, so 1 went through the corn 
dance, and the rain dance, and the war dance and others, 
and at last, as a w'ind-up, with the scalp dance, and in 
the twinkling of an eye, I scalped my brother as bald- 
headed as an egg. The boys in their great surprise 
gave one howl and rolled off their chairs onto the floor 
convulsed with laughter. My brother was very much 
chagrined at my action, but after the emptying of a 
basket of champaign he became reconciled to the ways 
of the woolly west. Champaign in those days was not 
any too good for us. 

I could have given many more historical, interesting 
and amusing incidents of Fort Scott's early days than I 
have, but my intention was to only issue a pamphlet 
instead of a book, and still give the reader a good idea 
of Fort Scott as a frontier town. 

Having now written of some of those incidents 
which occurred under my personal observation, during 
the era covered by the daily use of the steady-going ox 
team and rumbling rollicking stage coach, in the city 
of Fort Scott, and being reminded that I have arrived 
at that point, in time, when the locomotive and tele- 
graph lines made their advent into our little city, I will 
close, by extending, on behalf of the Citizen's National 
Bank of Fort Scott, its best wishes and Christmas 
greetings to each and all its customers and friends, as 



THE EARLY DAYS OF FORT SCOTT. 79 

well as the hope from the writer that they may each 
receive their equal share of this world's goods and 
happiness, and with the further hope and desire that 
whomsoever may peruse these pages may do so with 
pleasure, even though the "Queen's English" and 
grammatical construction may have been somewhat 
disfigured by my first, last and only effort to appear in 
the roll of an author, I am, 

Respectfully, 

C. W. GOODLANDER. 

Christmas, 1899. 




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